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THE 
FIGHTING ENGINEERS 



THE 
FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

. THE MINUTE MEN OF OUR 
INDUSTRIAL ARMY 



BY 
FRANCIS A. COLLINS 

Author of "The Air Man,." "The Camera 
Man,'' etc 



ILLUSTRATED 
WITH PHOTOGRAPHS 




NEW YORK 

THE CENTURY CO. 

1918 






\.y 



Copyright, 1918, by 
The Centuht Co. 



Published, June, 1918 



M\ -8 1918 ,, „ ^-^ 
©aA497639 



TO 

THE AMERICAN ENGINEERS 
AT CAMBRAI 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I Railroad Building "Over There" . 3 

II Destructive Engineering .... 29 

III The Road and Quarry Regiments . 41 

IV Forest and Farm Regiments ... 54 
V Arms and the Automobile ... 75 

VI The Famous iith Engineers ... 99 

VII The Man Behind the Guns . . .115 

VIII Modern Shells and Armor . . . 147 

IX American Versatility 164 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 



American engineers on the job . . Frontispiece 

Officers of the Fighting Engineers .... 9 

Unloading American locomotives at a French 

port 10 

Track work at the front 23 

A short cut through a deserted French village 24 

Placing a turntable on a narrow guage railroad 33 

Narrow guage construction 33 

Marine engineering . , 04 

The Highway Regiment at work .... 47 

Ruthless destruction of shade trees .... 48 

The invaders despoiling a French front . . 6r 

Amputation after a gun shot wound ... 62 

A man power pile driver 71 

Railroad devastation . 72 

A trench digger in action 81 

One of our 100,000 war motors 82 

German efficiency in bridge destruction . . 91 

An example of German bridge building . . 92 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

With the forestry regiment . . ,., ... ,., . 105 
Building a bridge against time . ,., . ,.106 

Type of modern ordnance ...... 123 

Work of the "Busy Berthas" 124 

A modern gun in action 141 

Modern ordnance on caterpillar wheels . . 142 
American foresters at work in France . . . -155 

A wayside repair shop ^S" 

A problem for the waterways engineers . . 165 

Temporary bridge construction 166 

Familiar American architecture in a French 

forest ^75 

All that remains of a French forest ... 176 
An example of destructive engineering . . .185 
After a "retreat to victory" . . ... • • • 186 



THE 
FIGHTING ENGINEERS 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

We dug up husky mountains by the roots ; 

We spanned the rushing torrent with a bridge ; 
We laid the rails to guide the steam-charged brutes 

That fed the men and guns at Cambrai Ridge, 
We built a road through slush and soupy mud, 

While dodging shells the German "minnies" sent ; 
We did the Job and saw that it was good — 

And then we heard another call — and went. 

The pick and shovel dropped from every hand ; 

We didn't even notice where they fell; 
We crawled or climbed or ran in No Man's Land 

To bring back tortured souls from worse than 
Hell. 
And then the Germans came — we had to fight ; 

With something near to joy we grabbed the guns ; 
For this we'd waited many a day and night 

To send our deadly greeting to the Huns. 

With British Tommies we stood face to face 

With Death — and counted it the Chance 
Of all — to be with them in that red place, 

To live and fight and maybe die for France. 
So shot for shot and ball for ball we gave, 

From trench and shell-hole till the fight was won ; 
Then we came back, each from his living grave — 

Save those whose living fighting days were done. 

So when the story of the war is told, 

Let one small chapter tell our little tale. 
Say that we helped the thin first line to hold — 

That when the Big Test came we did not fail. 
But do not call us "heroes" — do not give 

For those who died "out there" your futile tears. 
But, smiling proudly, let their names still live 

Upon the Roll — the Fighting Engineers ! 

H. Varley. 
Courtesy New York Times. 



THE 
FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

CHAr>TER I 

RAILROAD BUILDING *'0VER THERE" 

ON the declaration of war the call for 
volunteers for the engineering regi- 
ments found America admirably prepared. 
In organizing its industries to create, rather 
than to destroy, the country faced familiar 
problems. The. lively dangers of the enter- 
prise served only to arouse enthusiasm. No 
draft was needed to fill, almost overnight, the 
ranks of nine regiments of engineers for the 
period of the war. Drawing upon our 
boundless resources in skilled workers, the 
Government has recruited at this writing an 
army of 1 15,000 men. 

The Great War is preeminently a conflict 
of engineers. A locomotive may prove more 

3 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

deadly than a battery, while the building of 
bridges may decide the issue of a campaign. 

The fighting engineers often face greater 
perils than soldiers in other branches of the 
service. Theirs is in no sense a "bullet-proof 
job." Their losses frequently exceed those 
of the artillery regiments, the fatalities in 
which are, in turn, greater in number than 
those in the aviation corps. When other 
troops cross an exposed position, for in- 
stance, they usually do so at the double-quick, 
and seek shelter as soon as possible. The 
engineers often find themselves under fire at 
a time when they must stick to their work 
until it is finished. 

The men of the engineering regiments look 
like those in any other army service. They 
wear the same uniform and carry the usual 
arms and equipment. Their best fighting, 
however, is done with such complicated 
weapons as engines, batteries, and construc- 
tion tools. The engineers receive only such 
military drill as will give them greater mo- 
bility and better organization. After a lim- 
ited period of training in camp they are hur- 
ried directly to France, since their real fight- 

4 



RAILROAD BUILDING 

ing ability, now so sorely needed, has long 
since been trained to its highest efficiency. 

While the drilling of other troops was 
scarcely under way, America had put in the 
field complete regiments of railroad men, 
forestry workers, miners, electricians, bridge 
builders, — in short, representatives of all 
departments of constructive engineering. 
The call for volunteers met with an enthusi- 
astic response in such widely scattered cities 
as New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Chi- 
cago, Boston, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Atlanta, 
and San Francisco. In New York, for in- 
stance, there were men enough in line, when 
the recruiting office opened on the first day, 
to make up the required quota. Ten appli- 
cants offered their services for every one 
who could be chosen. It is significant that 
the leading engineering societies of the coun- 
try display "service flags" plentifully sup- 
plied with stars. 

No activity of the American engineers has 
made so profound an impression upon France 
as the actual work of the regiments of rail- 
road men. The most persistent publicity 
campaign could not have taught Europe in 

5 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

a generation so much about American rail- 
road methods. The traveled Frenchman or 
Englishman, especially if he were an engi- 
neer, knew something of the progress in 
railroad building in America, but the gen- 
eral public in the land of our allies was not 
prepared, and has been taken completely by 
surprise. 

When the first American locomotive 
reached France a large force of our engi- 
neers was on hand to welcome it. Many 
French railroad men and government engi- 
neers watched with lively interest the un- 
loading of the strange importation. As the 
parts were swung to the dock American 
workmen quickly assembled them, working 
with a celerity that amazed the observers. 
Another force of American railroad workers 
meanwhile hastily laid a section of track 
from the dock to the main line. Several 
days would have been required by the for- 
eign workmen to complete such a task, but 
in a few hours the Americans had finished 
both jobs, got up steam, and tooted a fare- 
well. 

The American locomotive's trip across 
6 



RAILROAD BUILDING 

France was in the nature of a triumphal 
procession. The unusual size and form of 
the engine naturally attracted great atten- 
tion, while its American flag served to 
identify the visitor and assure its welcome. 
Here, in the midst of the cities and fields of 
France, was a tangible proof of the arrival 
of American forces. With its bell and 
whistle going without interruption, the en- 
gine was rushed to the eastern boundary of 
France. 

Its destination was a sector occupied by 
American troops. News of the approach of 
the locomotive from back home flashed from 
camp to camp, and when the familiar whistle 
and bell were heard in the distance the sol- 
diers lined the tracks to welcome an old 
friend. As the engine came to a standstill 
the men greeted it with somewhat tremu- 
lous cheers, crowding about it and patting 
its wheels affectionately. 

The locomotive had approached very near 
the front lines, and an unexpected complica- 
tion followed its noisy greeting. Its Ameri- 
can crew had not learned that the ringing of 
a bell is the signal at the front for a gas- 

7 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

attack. The French troops who heard the 
clanging bell drew their own conclusions, 
and lost no time in crawling into their sub- 
terranean cellars and shelters. Not a 
Frenchman was on hand to welcome the 
new-comer. The bell has been removed, to 
be put to other uses ; but the American loco- 
motive is still in active service. 

The American engineers found the French 
railroads very different from their own. It 
is a great tribute to their skill that American 
methods have been so quickly adapted to 
strange conditions. The French operating 
system, for one thing, is left-handed; the 
tracks are not of standard gage, in our sense ; 
the rails are differently adjusted, and a new 
signal system had to be adopted. Add to 
these problems the fact that the engineers 
have to conduct their work by the medium of 
a foreign language, and the difficulties may 
be appreciated. Within a few days after 
their arrival, nevertheless, the Americans 
had taken hold of this highly complicated 
system and were operating without mishap. 

Large supplies of American locomotives 
and rolling stock have been carried to 

8 



RAILROAD BUILDING 

France, and these have been ingeniously 
adapted to the new conditions. The differ- 
ence in the width of the tracks was overcome 
by adjusting the wheels' carriages so that the 
railroad-beds would serve. 

The method of building tracks in France 
was a new problem for the American engi- 
neer. The French rails are differently sup- 
ported with wedges to tighten them. Our 
rails, of course, lie directly on ties or metal 
tie-plates. The French rail-joints are placed 
opposite each other, instead of being stag- 
gered as at home. In France a railroad 
curve is built on a scale of meters of radius, 
while Americans calculate the degrees of 
curvature. 

In taking over the French railroad-proj- 
ects, the American engineers were first 
obliged to study the existing French plans 
and redraw them all to a new scale. The 
French method of preparing blue-prints of 
the proposed work differs from our own; 
besides, such work must be done with the 
constant aid of interpreters, and here again 
great difficulty was encountered, since the in- 
terpreters were laymen who were not fa- 
il 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

miliar with technical engineering terrns. 
Furthermore, all the French dimensions and 
quantities, which are measured by the metric 
system, had to be translated into familiar 
units of measurement. 

The Americans, nevertheless, completed 
this preliminary work, and carried through 
immense railroad projects at a rate that as- 
tonished the French engineers. Despite all 
the difficulties they had to contend with, it is 
interesting to mention the fact that one of 
the projects entrusted to the Americans has 
been the construction of main-line tracks 
long enough to reach from New York to 
Chicago. 

Much of the equipment has had to be 
standardized to fit new conditions abroad. 
In laying down standard-gage railroad 
tracks in France, a special type of eighty- 
pound American Railway Association rail 
was rolled for the purpose. The French 
standard gage is four feet, eight and eleven 
sixteenths inches, or 114 centimeters, while 
American track is four feet, eight and one 
half inches. The narrow track consisted of 
twenty-five-pound American Society of Civil 

12 



RAILROAD BUILDING 

Engineers standard rails, laid one foot, 
eleven and five eighths inches, or sixty centi- 
meters, apart. For both types of rails the 
American engineers provide standard turn- 
outs, frogs, switches, and cross-overs, made 
interchangeable left or right. A light, port- 
able type of track is also generally employed, 
which may be laid very rapidly and bolted 
into position. 

Much of the trackage has been laid down 
in the immediate vicinity of the great sea- 
port freight-terminals. Practically all the 
supplies required by our fighters abroad must 
be ferried across the Atlantic. To handle 
this immense freight, classification depots 
and warehouses had to be built and a vast 
system worked out for routing this material 
from the ships to the front. 

The classification sheds are very long, with 
a width of fifty feet, and have eight-foot 
platforms. The most approved mechanical 
equipment for handling freight had to be de- 
signed, built at home, and rushed to France. 
The railroad construction work in these 
great 'regulating freight-yards is said to be 
the most efficient in France. 

13 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

The port-docks are great rectangular 
basins, which presented a pecuHar problem 
to the American engineers. Parallel to the 
sides and ends of these basins three lines of 
tracks were laid, and cranes and loading der- 
ricks were installed. In planning all this 
construction, it was found that French tim- 
ber does not have the same supporting 
strength as American lumber, and the plans 
had to be corrected accordingly. Again, the 
French piles could not be had in lengths 
greater than forty-five feet. 

In many instances the regular materials 
could not be found, and any makeshift was 
employed. 

Then, too, when our railroad cars arrived 
in France it was found that the wheel-trucks 
would not pass over the French turntables, 
and an entirely new turntable system had to 
be designed and built. A thousand unex- 
pected difficulties had to be met, in order that 
a smooth, steady stream of traffic might flow 
across France to the front. 

The organization of these vast enterprises 
has been carried out along characteristic 
American lines. A Director-General of 

14 



RAILROAD BUILDING 

Transportation has been put at the head of 
the building and maintenance of roads. 
The completeness of the organization is indi- 
cated by the titles of the various officials, 
these including a Deputy-Manager of Rail- 
roads, a Superintendent of Supplies, a Su- 
perintendent of Equipment, a Superintend- 
ent of Quarries, .a Bridge-Engineer, a Su- 
perintendent of Business Affairs, a General- 
Superintendent of Construction, and many 
division engineers. Each division is highly 
specialized. 

Shortly after their arrival in France the 
American railroad men were set to work 
on the highly complicated problem of double- 
tracking several of the main lines. Every 
detail of the work was entrusted to them. 
Hundreds of miles of land had to be sur- 
veyed, the roadbeds and bridges had to be 
widened, and countless engineering prob- 
lems had to be solved. Such double-tracked 
lines have been built from several seaports, 
— across the entire width of France, — to the 
front, in order that the carrying capacity 
of the railroads may be doubled as quickly as 
possible. 

15 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

American workers soon became familiar 
objects in many sections of France. The 
skill and expedition of these regiments have 
made as profound an impression upon the 
French engineers as upon the general public. 
In the progress of this work a unique record 
for speed in railroad building has been es- 
tablished in France, if not in the world. A 
section of standard-gage track, just five 
eighths of a mile in length, — a French unit 
of measurement, — was built and made ready 
for traffic in two hours and ten minutes. 

As the fighting men push forward, the 
task of supplying millions of troops with 
food and ammunition has become unprece- 
dented. To this end the railroads are al- 
ways the vital element. The American en- 
gineers have been very active of late in the 
unheard-of-task of transporting a railroad 
bodily from England to France. Every rail, 
tie, and spike of this system was taken up, 
its proper position marked, and the immense 
bulk of material loaded on steamers. The 
equipment was complete to the last detail, 
including the engines, cars, signal-systems, 
and repair-shops. 

i6 



RAILROAD BUILDING 

After braving the U-boats in the English 
Channel, the railroad fleet arrivel safely in 
port, when an even more complicated task 
had to be faced. Only trained railroad men 
could be entrusted with the work. The 
problems involved made a special appeal to 
the American engineers. Without an 
amazingly efficient, system the work would 
have fallen into hopeless confusion. With 
the aid of the newest labor-saving ma- 
chinery, the track-bed was prepared, the 
tracks were laid, the repair-shops established 
and manned, and trains were soon running 
in a foreign land on their accustomed 
schedule. 

The engineering methods of generations 
have often been swept aside in an hour. To 
transport a cargo from London to Paris and 
beyond has been a complicated procedure. 
Such a cargo must be handled at least four 
times in transferring it from train to boat 
and again to train, with countless delays, due 
to the conflicting methods of two different 
countries. To-day a railroad car is loaded 
with ammunition at a factory in England 
and unloaded in France at a point convenient 

17 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

to the firing-line. Without the pressure of 
war, so direct a method might not have been 
adopted for generations. The American 
railroad engineer trained to get results in 
the shortest possible time, is proving indis- 
pensable to France and England in the intro- 
duction of these radical reforms. 

Great technical skill in railroading is re- 
quired to work out the new problems. The 
transportation methods of both countries 
must be thoroughly understood to the last 
detail before they can be coordinated. The 
British, French, and American engineers, 
working together, have mapped out entirely 
new systems of transportation. Under the 
crushing burden of the war the French rail- 
roads have badly run down. They are in 
need of men and equipment of every kind. 
The men who operate them are sorely needed 
at the front. It is a matter of national 
pride that our best engineering talent has 
been quickly recruited for the task of recon- 
struction. 

The gap between the terminus of the regu- 
lar railroad lines and the trenches is often 
difficult to bridge. The ground may be con- 

i8 



RAILROAD BUILDING 

tinuously under fire from the great siege- 
guns of the enemy's batteries. Since the 
battle-Hne is drawn without a break uphill 
and down dale for hundreds of miles, it 
often passes through rough country. The 
land back of the trenches is frequently 
broken by deep ravines or valleys, where or- 
dinary railroad construction would be diffi- 
cult to carry on and to defend. The en- 
emy's aeroplanes are constantly on the look- 
out for such targets. 

A light, narrow-gage track, separated by 
only twenty-four inches, is commonly used 
for the railroads immediately back of the 
trenches. By using light timbers, or almost 
any makeshift for ties, several miles of such 
track are often laid overnight. The trains 
of supply cars are hauled either by steam- 
engines or by gasoline-motors ingeniously 
contrived from an automobile. When it is 
important that the trains be as noiseless as 
possible, horses and mules are used as motive 
power. 

When very rough country is to be bridged, 
an ingetiious cable railway, which may be 
thrown across a deep ravine in a few hours, 

19 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

is often employed. A narrow bridge or 
walk is built of lumber, and light cables are 
strung at the side. The wheels of the cars 
are grooved to fit these cables, so that a com- 
paratively heavy load may be moved by 
hand-power. 

When the trench-railroads traverse spe- 
cially exposed country, tunnels are often dug 
as a protection against attack. The tracks 
are arched, covered with branches of trees, 
ingenious arrangements of boards, or strips 
of painted cloth for the purpose of deceiving 
the scouting air men. The most flimsy cov- 
ering, if the coloring is cleverly arranged, 
will suffice. The familiar routine of rail- 
roading often goes forward in these curious 
tunnels within sound, perhaps within range, 
of the firing-lines. 

American railroad men have been espe- 
cially commended by the British officers for 
their work in the flooded districts near the 
front in Flanders. Until our men came it 
had been found impossible to establish rail- 
road connections in the inundated sections. 
The British troops in this region were com- 
pelled to wade through a morass, camping on 

20 



RAILROAD BUILDING 

the slightly higher bits of ground. The 
railroads were usually covered with water 
as fast as they were built. 

To drain off the land, — hundreds of 
square miles of it, — was obviously impos- 
sible, while filling-in would have required 
enormous labor. The American engineers 
solved this problern, and actually ''floated a 
railroad" that keeps the advanced lines in 
continuous communication with the rear. 
The censor has not permitted any informa- 
tion in regard to this work to come through, 
— for such information would be highly 
valuable to the enemy, — other than the gen- 
eral statement that an ingenious application 
of hydraulics has been employed. 

The fighting railroad engineers at present 
comprise three regiments for operation, five 
for constructive work, and one for motive 
and repair work. The Eleventh Engineers 
has been recruited largely in New York ; the 
Twelfth Engineers comes from St. Louis; 
The Fourteenth, which directs operation of 
railroads, hails from New England; the 
Nineteenth, composed of railroad shop-men, 
comes from western Pennsylvania. It is the 

21 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

last regiment which has done such excellent 
work on the Paris-Orleans system. The 
Thirty-Fifth was organized at Camp Grant, 
Rockford, Illinois. Still other regiments 
have been raised in Chicago, on the Pacific 
Coast, and in the southwest. Each of these 
regiments includes iioo men and 33 officers. 
The work of our railroad regiments 
abroad has been greatly facilitated by un- 
limited American supplies. Until Novem- 
ber, 15, 19 1 7, the orders for railroad equip- 
ment exceeded $70,000,000; since that date 
these figures have been greatly increased. 
The early orders for supplies included : 

100,000 tons of steel. 

3000 complete turnouts. 

500,000 ties. 

12,000 freight-cars. 

600 field- and ballast-cars. 

600 miles of telephone and telegraph wire. 

The work of the Canadian engineers in 
France has attracted special attention. 
Little was known abroad of the railroad en- 
gineers in Canada. On their arrival, a com- 
pany of Canadians were assigned to a par- 

22 



H 





'X, 



RAILROAD BUILDING 

ticularly difficult piece of railroad construc- 
tion, and a time far short of ordinary esti- 
mates was fixed for completing the work. 
It was not thought possible that the Cana- 
dians could do the work, at least not in any- 
thing approaching the time agreed upon. 
The workmen from oversea were handi- 
capped by an unfamiliar environment. But 
these men, fresh from a successful struggle 
with grades in the Canadian Rockies, found 
the task comparatively simple. The work 
was completed several days before the ex- 
piration of the time allotted them. 

Perhaps the most striking feat of the Ca- 
nadian railroad men has been the transpor- 
tation of large sections of railroads with 
their equipment, bodily from Canada to 
France. The Canadians found that they 
could spare many of the side-tracks from 
their railroad systems. To build so much 
track and equipment would have taken time, 
and time was a valuable commodity. Miles 
of track were quickly taken up, carried to the 
eastern seaports, loaded on shipboard, and 
carried to France. Within a few days after 
their arrival the tracks were actually doing 

25 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

invaluable service in putting through troops 
and ammunition-trains from the seacoast to 
the front. To borrow a railroad from a 
neighbor is a unique request, especially when 
he lives more than three thousand miles over- 
sea. 

All locomotives used near the front are 
painted a battleship gray, to render them as 
inconspicuous as possible. The American 
locomotives now employed in France are not 
our most powerful type, although far out- 
classing the European models. A standard 
locomotive has been selected for this work 
which weighs 166,400 pounds, or 275,000 
pounds with its tender. It is the familiar 
eight-coupled driver-type, with two-wheeled 
pony-truck in front, and will haul sixty fully 
loaded freight-cars. 

The biggest order for freight-cars yet re- 
ceived called for 13,000 cars of the flat, gon- 
dola, box, and other types. American cars 
used on French tracks are considerably 
longer than the French type. The latter has 
a capacity of twenty tons, while the Ameri- 
can car can carry thirty-five tons. They are 
mounted on two four-wheeled arch-bar 

26 



RAILROAD BUILDING 

trucks, measure thirty-six feet in length, and 
weigh 32,000 pounds. American engineers 
have studied the problem carefully and have 
designed cars for this service that combine 
the best American and European features. 
One of the most useful pieces of machinery 
sent to France is a powerful steam-shovel, 
mounted on a caterpillar tractor, which is 
proving invaluable in railroad construction. 

The distinguished personnel of the rail- 
road regiments is a guarantee of their high 
efficiency. America is lending her best 
talent to the service of France. The or- 
ganization and development of the railroad 
regiments is in charge of Mr. Samuel Felton, 
president of the Chicago Great Western Rail- 
road. In 19 1 6 Mr. Felton was selected to 
advise the United States Army in the Mexi- 
can campaign. American railroad opera- 
tions in France are in charge of Brigadier- 
General W. W. Atterbury, one of the 
operating vice-presidents of the Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad system. Prominent in the 
work are such well-known railroad men as 
Brigadier-General McKistry and Colonel G. 
M. Hoffman. 

27 



iTHE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

When the history of the American engi- 
neering regiments in France comes to be 
written, one of their achievements, which 
has hitherto passed uncited, will doubtless 
take a high place. During the Allied ad- 
vance at Cambrai, American engineers 
quickly extended their tracks far behind the 
enemy's trenches. In the forward rush they 
suddenly came upon a German railroad that 
had been left untouched in the panic of re- 
treat. The challenge was instantly accepted 
by the Americans, who connected their own 
line with the German system, so that trains 
could pass from the Allied line to the former 
German railroad without interruption. Our 
engineers laid altogether eight miles of track 
on the heels of the advancing column. By 
British officers this work has been com.- 
mended as the most daring piece of construc- 
tion in the war. 

The American railroad men have the 
credit, therefore, of building the first con- 
necting link in the service between Paris and 
Berlin since the outbreak of the war, al- 
though the schedule of trains remains to be 
adjusted. 

28 



CHAPTER II 

DESTRUCTIVE ENGINEERING 

IN no other war have such scientific en- 
gineering methods been employed in 
purely destructive work. New standards 
for ruthlessness have been established. 
The enemy's engineers have brought techni- 
cal training and wide experience to the task, 
and have applied the most ingenious effi- 
ciency to the work of devastation. It has 
been commonly supposed that the methods 
of the Romans in destroying Carthage had 
set a perpetual standard ; but their work now 
appears primitive and unscientific. 

The destruction of a railroad is an espe- 
cially difficult problem for the engineers of 
an invading army. In a familiar picture of 
the Civil War troops are shown prying rails 
from the ties, heating and bending them into 
grotesque shapes. The fighting engineers 
of a modern army, with the latest tools and 

29 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

experience at their command, could repair 
such damage in a few hours. To destroy 
miles of track so that they could not be again 
utilized would involve enormous labor. 

During General Hindenberg's operations 
in Galicia hundreds of miles of track were 
destroyed by an entirely new method. Sol- 
diers attached dynamite-cartridges to the 
fish-plates of the tracks, hundreds of men 
doing the work at top speed. When the 
dynamite was exploded, every plate and rail 
was either shattered or badly bent, thus put- 
ting the system entirely out of commission. 

When the same engineers had more time 
to work, their program was varied. The 
Russian railroads are built with a much 
wider gage than those in Germany, and the 
engineers with the armies invading Galicia 
were quick to profit by it. The ties were 
taken up and sawed, so that they would 
barely serve for the German gage of tracks. 
The roadbed could thus be utilized by the 
Germans, and on their retreat would be 
found useless for the purposes of the Rus- 
sian railroads. The Germans make a prac- 
tice of destroying all railroad buildings, such 

30 



DESTRUCTIVE ENGINEERING 

as repair-shops, round-houses, train-sheds, 
and stations. 

The destruction of bridges has also become 
a scientific problem. In the early days of 
the war bridges were mutilated by the simple 
expedient of breaking them in the middle. 
The central span would be dynamited, leav- 
ing a gap in the structure, when the work 
was considered complete. As the invaders 
retreated, the engineers found little difficulty, 
however, in patching up these structures, 
sometimes in a few hours. They would 
build up a pier, — often with light scaffolding, 
— and mend the gap so that troops, or even 
trains, would soon be passing over them. 
Profiting by these mistakes, the engineers 
of the invading army thereafter made a 
much more thorough job of bridges by tear- 
ing the frames apart until restoration was 
impossible. 

The long tunnels, hewn often from solid 
rock, offered still another problem to the en- 
gineers of destruction. New methods had 
to be devised. In previous wars armies that 
have' occupied land containing tunnels have 
respected these works which represent so 

31 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

much labor and which play so important a 
part in industrial life. In former times the 
lust for destruction was not so highly de- 
veloped as at present. German engineers, 
however, do not content themselves with 
destroying the tracks or roadbeds of tunnels, 
but drill deep into the rock and blast away 
the entrance, until the passages are com- 
pletely blocked and can only be cleared at 
great cost of labor and time. 

The German engineers have also applied 
characteristic methods of efficiency in cutting 
down the forests of Belgium and Northern 
France and in transporting them to Ger- 
many. The most modern type of sawmills 
and machinery for cutting and hauling logs 
have been brought from Germany. The 
logs are stripped of their bark, which is util- 
ized, so that no byproduct shall go to waste. 
When lumber is needed in any section near 
the forests, sawmills have been established, 
in order that the finished products can be 
prepared without loss of time. 

To "spike a gun" has long been an ac- 
cepted synonym for crippling it. Histories 
of battles abound in stories of daring men 

32 




Narrow gauge construction 




Placing a turntable on a narrow gauge railroad 



DESTRUCTIVE ENGINEERING 

who have rushed upon an enemy's gun, 
forced a bayonet into the bore, and thus de- 
stroyed its usefulness, perhaps at the cost of 
their own lives. The great modern pieces 
of ordnance are proof against such attacks. 
The old-fashioned cannon of cast-iron or 
bronze might be reduced to junk by blows of 
a sledge-hammer or a charge of powder. 
The strength of a modern gun, however, is 
proof against such attacks. But the mech- 
anism for loading modern guns and mov- 
ing them into position is delicate, and the 
complicated machinery may be put out of 
commission by a few blows directed with 
scientific certainty. 

The technical methods employed in mod- 
ern range-finding have been made an excuse 
for immense destruction. Many great 
buildings, even whole towns that would have 
been spared in past wars, have been attacked, 
because they aided the enemy in directing 
artillery fire. The success of a shot from 
one of the great modern cannon is not due 
so much to the man behind the gun as to the 
man behind the telescopic sight. By de- 
stroying towers, or positions from which 

35 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

such observations may be made, the effective- 
ness of artillery may often be greatly re- 
duced. A problem new to international law 
has thus been raised in the present conflict. 

It is frequently found necessary to sacri- 
fice valuable property, belonging to loyal citi- 
zens, in order to facilitate artillery fire or 
to gain some purely technical advantage. 
During the early days of the war, when the 
German advance through Belgium men- 
aced Paris, a considerable section of the city 
was marked for destruction, in order to give 
free range for the great batteries brought up 
for its defense. Besides, in the event of the 
enemy's advance to this point, the buildings 
would afford valuable shelter. Here was a 
problem for the technical engineer. A large 
force of men was engaged in this work, and 
rows of buildings were scientifically demol- 
ished. Explosions of the blasts used to re- 
duce them were distinctly heard on the inner 
boulevards of Paris. 

A special tribute should be paid to the 
Frenchman who cheerfully sacrificed his 
chateau in Northern France, so as to assist 
the artillery fire of a French battery. The 

36 



DESTRUCTIVE ENGINEERING 

ancient building, surrounded by gardens, 
was shown to be in the way. The owner at 
once agreed to make the sacrifice; and he 
calmly watched the French guns reduce his 
ancestral home to ruins. 

A striking parallel might be drawn be- 
tween the methods employed by the Romans 
in devastating Carthage and those employed 
by the invaders of modern France. The 
scientific destruction of this rich, fertile 
country has been complete in every detail. 
When the enemy's forces retreat, nothing 
is left that the returning population may 
utilize in restoring their land to normal con- 
ditions. The homes in villages, for example, 
are reduced to piles of debris. Trained en- 
gineers first inspect the ground and deter- 
mine how dynamite may be exploded to re- 
duce the walls with the least possible waste 
of energy. Bridges are damaged beyond 
hope of repair by men skilled in bridge con- 
struction; roadways are ploughed up; shell- 
fire has pitted much of this country with 
craters, while the intricate systems of 
trenches have chopped up the once fertile 
fields. 

37. 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

Engineers who have visited these scien- 
tifically devastated regions differ widely as to 
the length of time necessary to bring this 
land back to its original condition. Some 
have thought that a generation would be re- 
quired, while others have been more hope- 
ful. Meanwhile the problem of restoration 
has been attacked with an engineering skill 
and efficiency equal to that of the invaders. 
Portable cottages are built wholesale. They 
are then taken apart, to be set up with all 
possible despatch when the opportunity 
comes to reoccupy the relinquished territory. 
An army of workers has been recruited for 
this work for which much of the service is 
volunteered. 

In Northern France many of the roads 
that were the pride of the country have been 
found hopelessly mutilated by the enemy's 
engineers. The work has evidently been 
done by experts in road engineering, so that 
it would be easier to build a road in a new 
land than to attempt to mend these old road- 
ways. To work such destruction by hand 
would require an immense expenditure of 
time and labor; so, with characteristic effi- 

38 



DESTRUCTIVE ENGINEERING 

ciency, massive power-machines have been 
employed by the enemy, machines that tear 
up the roadbed and scatter it, vi^hile keeping 
up a slow but steady pace. 

The work of directing the water-courses 
and flooding the country whenever possible 
has evidently been carried out by expert hy- 
draulic engineers. A dam is thrown across 
a stream, and, when necessary, the water is 
even siphoned to a new level. Great tracts 
of land are thus placed under water, and 
these tracts have to be drained at great ex- 
pense before the territory can be reclaimed. 
These engineers often show great ingenuity 
in diverting the streams in such a way that 
sand will be washed over the fertile soil, 
thus rendering it useless to the farmers for 
a long period to come. 

Since France is covered with an intricate 
network of canals, the enemy's engineers 
have found an unusual opportunity for sci- 
entific destruction. In time of peace a great 
fleet of canal-boats can navigate from one 
end of France to the other. The destruction 
of these 'Waterways will cripple the interior- 
commerce of France for years to come. A 

39 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

favorite method of the invaders is to con- 
struct dams across the canals and so flood the 
surrounding country. In other places great 
sections of the banks are torn away by ex- 
ploding mines, so that when the country is 
reoccupied by the French the waterways 
cannot be used without rebuilding them. 

One of the most wanton tricks of the 
retreating Germans is to leave a watch hang- 
ing in plain view in a deserted home. The 
watch is electrically connected with a mine, 
so that the first person who touches it is 
probably instantly killed in the explosion 
that follows. No possible military advan- 
tage is gained by this practice. 

The condition of these reoccupied cities 
has been vividly pictured by a member of 
the nth Engineers in a recent letter from 
the front. He writes : 

Visited a large French city the other day, which 
the Germans occupied, but which was later recap- 
tured by the French. No human being could imag- 
ine the destruction that has been wrought there. 
Among the thousands of houses, there is not a 
single one that could be lived in. Most of them 
are beaten to dust, churches and everything else, 

40 



CHAPTER III 

THE ROAD AND QUARRY REGIMENTS 

FRANCE, in proportion to its area, has 
an immense mileage of roads, which 
naturally play a vital part in military opera- 
tions. In many sections of that country 
there is an average of one mile of road to 
every one and a half square miles of land. 
Enormous labor is involved in keeping these 
roads open for war traffic, and American 
engineers have tackled this problem with 
characteristic vigor. 

The Road Building and Quarry Regiment, 
which was organized especially for such 
work, contains engineers experienced in road 
building under a great variety of conditions. 
The regiment carried to France a large con- 
structive plant, with much labor-saving ma- 
chinery, new to Europe, to fa,cilitate the 
work. 

These American engineers first made an 
41 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

exhaustive study of the resources of the 
French quarries. Two men were selected to 
investigate. One was formerly prominent 
in the quarry business on the Pacific Coast, 
and the other was formerly the representa- 
tive of a large machinery manufacturing 
company. In their tour of inspection they 
covered nine hundred miles by automobile, 
visiting the principal quarries of France. 
The data thus gathered made it possible to 
accurately gage the resources of the quarries 
and at the same time to suggest what ma- 
chinery would be required. 

It was found that the French method of 
quarrying calls for little use of the modern 
mechanical equipment common in America. 
According to American standards of effi- 
ciency there is an immense loss, due to the 
general use of hand-labor. It is impossible 
at present to find the proper mechanical 
equipment in France, and such machinery 
will have to be imported from America. 

To begin with, most of the drilling in the 

French quarries is done laboriously by hand. 

The rate of drilling is said to be only from 

one to one and a half meters per man a day. 

42 



ROAD AND QUARRY REGIMENTS 

The drill-holes are usually about eight feet 
in depth. As a rule, the rock encountered 
is a soft limestone, with layers of clay. 
When the American steam-driven jackham- 
mer-drills get to work, the output will doubt- 
less be enormously increased. 

After a blast the rock is usually broken 
by hand. The hammer used for this work 
is small, and the handle has been compared 
by Americans to a light cane. The stone- 
crushers used in some quarries are small 
and ineffective, compared with the American 
machines. Great improvement is also pos- 
sible in the use of power in driving these 
machines. The cars used for carrying 
stone are usually loaded by hand. The 
plans of the engineers of the Quarry Regi- 
ment include the general use of modern 
American stone-drilling and stone-crushing 
machinery, new methods of handling and 
storing the stone, and greater efficiency in 
loading the cars. 

One of the first problems in such construc- 
tion is to build roads as free as possible from 
dust, since the dust-clouds quickly attract the 
enemy's fire. The slow, laborious work of 

43 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

road-construction must often be carried on 
very close to the front, and the casualty rate 
is high. The problem is rendered extremely 
difficult by the unprecedented burdens the 
modern military road must support. It is 
often impossible, moreover, to get the best 
materials for road-building, and ingenious 
shifts must be employed. Again, ordinary 
road-building machinery cannot be employed 
near the front. A puff of smoke from a 
steam-roller, or the steam from its exhaust, 
is likely to attract a devastating fire from 
some German battery. 

It was soon found that the limestone used 
in France for road-making was so soft that 
it clogged the American stone-crushers ; but 
this was obviated by designing a special jaw 
for crushing it. American engineers have 
learned to like the soft limestone, since it 
compacts easily and thus facilitates the work. 
The familiar macadam road is found to stand 
up best under the enormous strain of war 
traffic, but even the best roadbed requires 
constant mending. It has been difficult to 
find the trap-rock commonly used in Amer- 
ica, but in the vicinity of the industrial cen- 



ROAD AND QUARRY REGIMENTS 

ters there is abundance of slag. The road- 
builders are constantly experimenting with 
new materials and new constructive methods, 
and this war experience is proving invalu- 
able. 

A large force of American engineers and 
workmen has set to work to widen the 
French roads. These men find the main 
roads sufficiently wide, but many of the road- 
ways are only eighteen feet in width, and 
these are to be increased to thirty-four feet. 
An immense amount of labor is, of course, 
involved in this work. 

The existing drainage-system must be re- 
adjusted, bridges must be widened, and 
scores of such problems solved, without in- 
terrupting traffic for an hour. The main 
military roads must be constructed with all 
the skill known to such engineering. A 
weight of thirty tons is commonly carried 
on a four-foot wheel-base, while eighteen 
tons of artillery are often supported by a 
single axle. The tanks are kept off the 
roads as much as possible, and when they 
have to' be used a road-mending crew always 
follows to repair the resulting damage. The 

45 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

weight of the tanks also worries the builders 
of wooden bridges. 

The regulation of road-traffic on crowded 
thoroughfares is always difficult; but the 
problem is immensely complicated near the 
front. A greater number of motors often 
pass a given point near the front than are to 
be seen on Broadway or Fifth Avenue dur- 
ing the rush hours. Accidents are common, 
but the road must be kept clear at all costs. 
This dense stream of traffic must also be hur- 
ried forward at night, without slackening its 
. pace and practically without lights, lest they 
attract the enemy's attention. 

War traffic is regulated by military "traf- 
fic cops," stationed at regular intervals. By 
day the traffic men signal with three flags, — 
red, green, and white, — and by night they use 
small lanterns of the same colors. The 
white signal, day or night, means "all clear," 
the green signal is to slow down traffic, and 
the red is to bring all traffic to a stop. When 
artillery or infantry wishes to pass, the road 
is completely cleared for them without a 
moment's delay. 

It is so important that all lights be con- 
46 



ROAD AND QUARRY REGIMENTS 

cealed at night that the immense traffic is 
compelled to find its way in the dark. To 
keep this traffic on the straight way a series 
of whitewashed pickets are driven at inter- 
vals of ten feet along the roadside. One of 
the favorite diversions of the German air- 
men is to locate a crowded military roadway 
and, flying low, to rake the line of ammuni- 
tion-trucks with their machine-guns, in the 
hope of causing an explosion. 

As the road-builders approach the front, 
their work becomes increasingly difficult. 
The ground is often a succession of shell- 
craters, where no ordinary road could be 
built without an immense amount of grad- 
ing ; and neither time or money can be spared 
for such work. In such cases they build a 
very serviceable plank road. The timbers 
for this road are prepared of a standard size, 
measuring five by nine inches, with a length 
of nine feet. The lumber is adjusted to the 
irregularities of the land, the planks are 
spiked firmly together. This plank road is 
quickly laid and serves very well for one- 
way traffic. 

The Road-Building Regiment has also 
49 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

performed invaluable service in constructing 
miles of foot-bridges throughout the devas- 
tated regions of Northern France and Bel- 
gium. Great tracts of country have been 
so cut up by shell-craters or abandoned 
trenches as to be practically impassable. 

The Americans have introduced a type of 
foot-bridge familiar in marshy tracts in the 
United States, by driving stakes into the 
ground and constructing a narrow board- 
walk a foot or more above the ground or 
water, as the case may be. Its construction 
is simple and inexpensive, and it clears the 
way for the passage of light wheelbarrows, 
small wagons, and foot-traffic. 

Volumes might be filled with descriptions 
of the engagements of the road-builders. 
For instance, it is the boast of the men of 
the Road-Building Regiment that when they 
had been enlisted but seven months they 
had seen four months' service at the 
front. 

The following quotation from a letter 
from one of the officers gives an excellent 
picture of their work. He writes: 

50 



ROAD AND QUARRY REGIMENTS 

The day after Thanksgiving we left camp at six 
o'clock. We were running parallel with the front 
line and about one mile and one half from it. 

There was very heavy shelling, — in fact, quite a 
barrage was breaking just over the hill between us 
and the front line ; but, as we had been more or less 
under shell-fire during the past weeks, we did not 
think it was anything unusual. We had just set 
nicely to work, .spread along nearly a half-mile, 
when the barrage lifted over the hill. We had to 
get out then as quickly as we could, although we 
had not yet any idea that the Boche was coming 
over. 

Lieutenant Holstrom had to go through the bar- 
rage to reach his detail. Lieutenant Cone went in 
one direction and I went in the other, to get all the 
men away. In fact, we did get every man away 
who was in sight; but a number of men had jumped 
into dugouts for shelter from the shell-fire, and we 
could not see them. 

When I had brought every man away from my 
vicinity, I started across a field, hurrying the men 
ahead of me to a sunken road several hundred yards 
away. Cone was one hundred yards to my left 
and slightly in the rear, hurrying along the men he 
had gone for. We were all just ahead of the bar- 
rage. 

When I reached the sunken road I got the men 
into dugouts there, and looked back over the edge 

51 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

of the road. There was Cone coming along, with 
his head, face, neck, — everything, — covered with 
blood. He had been caught by a shell-burst ahead 
of the main barrage, and the shell-bursts of the bar- 
rage were now getting thick about him and over 
the sunken road. I hurried out and helped him in, 
with two of his men who had come in with him. 
The shell-fragment had gone in one side of his 
steel hat and out the other, giving him a bad scalp- 
wound on top of his head, but not injuring the skull. 

He said that Sergeant Haley was out there, and 
that he had been hit at the same time. I went out 
and found Haley, with Sergeant Donald Mclsaac 
and two British Tommies, in the midst of the bar- 
rage. We picked him up and carried him to the 
sunken road. Mclsaac and I then returned for a 
Tommy, who we had been told was wounded out 
there in the barrage. We could not find him, and 
as the Boche was then coming over the hill, we re- 
turned to the sunken road and got the men out of 
the dugouts and started them back to safety. 

As the shell-fire stopped, it seemed as if hundreds 
of Hun aeroplanes filled the air and turned their 
machine-guns on us while we were crossing the 
field or were on the roads. They were flying so 
low that we could see every detail. If we had only 
had our arms — ! Never again ! 

The shortest man in the regiment is a little Sec- 
ond Lieutenant (one of those who has been pro- 
moted) who was struck in the head with a bullet 

52 



ROAD AND QUARRY REGIMENTS 

that went clean through both sides of his steel hel- 
met and chipped the upper edge of his forehead on 
the way. If he had been one quarter of an inch 
taller, it would have finished him. A story has 
reached us through the Tommies that one of our 
men was found dead in the field from bayonet- 
wounds ; but he had three Germans in front of him, 
killed by the railroad pick he had wielded valiantly. 



53 



CHAPTER IV 

FOREST AND FARM REGIMENTS 

IN recruiting the Forestry Regiment only 
men having technical training or actual 
experience in forestry work were chosen. 
The foresters are in charge of two regular 
army officers, and this body includes fifteen 
foresters selected from the United States 
Forestry Service, two from the Forestry 
Branch of British Columbia, one lumberman 
from the Indian Forestry Service, and thir- 
teen foresters, or skilled lumbermen, taken 
from civil life. One thousand skilled 
woodsmen complete the regiment, which is 
divided into six companies of 164 each. No 
more vigorous and fearless body of fighting 
engineers could be found than this regiment 
of brawny lumberjacks, seasoned by ex- 
posure in many winter camps. 

The foresters were among the first Amer- 
icans to enter war service. As early as 
June, 1 91 7, a sawmill unit, composed of 360 
54 



FOREST AND FARM REGIMENTS 

men, was recruited in New England, com- 
pletely equipped with portable sawmills, and 
hurried abroad. The machinery and sup- 
plies were sufficient to make the unit self- 
sustaining for one year. The unit has since 
been at work cutting lumber in Scotland for 
use in France. Timber-land on Andrew 
Carnegie's estate at Skibo Castle, or in the 
vicinity, contains about 15,000,000 feet of 
lumber. 

The lumbermen assigned to France were 
first assigned to two training camps, — at 
Washington and at Fort Leavenworth, Kan- 
sas, — where they were uniformed and armed 
like other units of the United States Army. 
The camp experience was intended to train 
these independent types of workmen in mili- 
tary discipline and accustom them to team- 
work. In this way a mobile body of work- 
ers has been formed to carry on the work of 
logging and milling in France and to solve 
many problems in intensive forestry. 

Never, perhaps, has a more difficult prob- 
lem confronted America's woodsmen ; for the 
forests in many parts of France have been 
destroyed with malicious, scientific skill. 

55 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

The American Forestry Regiment fights 
with weapons of characteristic power and 
ingenuity. Their equipment includes five 
complete, large, mobile, steam-driven saw- 
mills, which have been transported across the 
Atlantic and hurried to the devastated sec- 
tions of Northern France. Each of these 
sawmills can turn out 20,000 board feet of 
lumber every ten hours. By working the 
mills in two shifts, each of these mills has 
turned out 40,000 feet of lumber a day, while 
the total daily output of the combined units 
is 200,000 feet. 

This regiment also carried to France five 
smaller and more portable sawmills which 
might be drawn by either a motor or four 
horses, thus saving much valuable time. 
The smaller mills, have an output of from 
8000 to 10,000 feet of lumber, or a combined 
output of 50,000 feet every ten hours. A 
number of horses were carried along to be 
used in logging work, so that the Forestry 
Regiment suppled both the machinery and 
the power required. 

The problem of transportation was antici- 
pated by carrying to France twenty-five miles 

56 



FOREST AND FARM REGIMENTS 

of light steel rails for the construction of a 
railroad to carry lumber and finished prod- 
ucts from the forests to the front. The sci- 
entific ruthlessness of the Germans is thus 
matched against an unexpected unit of effi- 
ciency from overseas. 

The hum of these American sawmills has 
sounded a new and welcome note in the for- 
ests of France. Once safely landed on the 
Continent, our men and machinery were 
quickly transported to the forest lands. 
With a skill born of long experience in 
American forests, the trees were felled and 
transformed into the finished products so 
anxiously awaited. 

It is estimated that about 25,000,000 feet 
of lumber is needed monthly to supply the 
armies and carry on the war. For this 
supply the Allies must depend mainly on the 
forests of France. American forestry ex- 
perts report that the French forests consist 
of pine, fir, oak, beech, and other hard woods. 
The timber is smaller than the American 
lumberjacks are accustomed to, and the for- 
ests resemble the wood-lots of southern New 
England. The logs are sawed into boards 
57 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

and dimension material ; the smaller trees are 
hewn into ties, poles, etc. Nothing is 
wasted. One of the most valuable products 
of the forests is charcoal. The soldiers in 
the trenches warm themselves by burning 
charcoal in small braziers, since the smoke 
from wood-fires would attract the attention 
of the enemy. Timber is selected and cut 
with the greatest care, so that the forests 
may be left in good condition for further 
production. 

In following the fortunes of our forestry 
workers in France, it should be kept in mind 
that the men are serving in two regiments, 
known as the Tenth Engineers and the 
Twentieth Engineers. The former regi- 
ment, comprising about 3000 men, has been 
serving in France for several months at this 
writing. The latter regiment, whose full 
strength will be 7740 men, is now being re- 
cruited and trained for immediate service. 
It includes ten battalions, each commanded 
by a major, with the usual number of cap- 
tains and lieutenants. Of these officers, fifty 
per cent, are men who have had practical 
forestry experience, while twenty-five per 

:58 



FOREST AND FARM REGIMENTS 

cent, have had regular military training. 
The forestry regiments are representative, 
having been recruited from fourteen dis- 
tricts in widely separated sections of the 
country. A good idea of the versatility of 
the forestry regiments may be gained from 
the list of workmen. This includes skilled 
axmen, wood-sawyers, crosscut-saw-filers, 
tie-hewers, skidders, teamsters, wheel- 
wrights, blacksmiths, mill-sawyers, circular- 
saw-filers, expert mill-hands, carpenters, ma- 
chinists, and charcoal-burners. All the men 
are enlisted for the period of the war. 

The vital need of lumber to construct rail- 
roads was soon relieved by an output of mil- 
lions of railroad ties. Several of these mills 
have been worked overtime at full speed, es- 
pecially in the winter months, to supply cord- 
wood for fires to warm the troops in camp. 
The trenches have drawn freely upon this 
supply. 

In rebuilding cities and villages through- 
out Northern France our American sawed 
lumber has proved invaluable. Entire vil- 
lages hkve been rebuilt with such material 
within a few days after their evacuation by 

59 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

the Germans. Much of this work has been 
standardized. Roofs have been constructed 
by the thousand, and these may be quickly 
placed on the walls of houses that have been 
left standing. Houses are built wholesale, 
taken apart, and transported to the devas- 
tated districts, to be set up in an incredibly 
short time. The advance of this American 
regiment into the forests of France will be 
remembered as one of the great achieve- 
ments of the war. 

In building barracks and hospitals by the 
acre for our soldiers in France an unsur- 
mountable difficulty seemed to face American 
engineers. France was already badly in 
need of lumber, and the extensive barracks 
required for the shelter of a million or more 
men made a serious demand upon her re- 
sources. The American Forestry Regiment 
was turned loose on the work. The French 
Government assigned to their use extensive 
forest lands in France, and the regiment, 
with their battery of sawmills, advanced on 
the double-quick. By working these peram- 
bulating sawmills double-time, hundreds of 
thousands of feet of lumber of the desired 

60 




m.J^^^ 



FOREST AND FARM REGIMENTS 

shape and size were turned out daily, and 
the great barracks rose as if by magic. 

The experience and energy of American 
foresters have in the same way worked mar- 
vels in restoring the mutilated forests of 
France. A tree that has been badly dam- 
aged by gun-fire, for instance, may often be 
nursed back to life. The modern tree-sur- 
geon works astounding cures. His skill in 
saving trees damaged by wind-storms or in 
prolonging the life of historic trees is well 
known at home. The shattered limbs are 
pruned with a skilful hand, or parts are re- 
moved and the cavities filled with the cement. 
Serious wounds are thus healed, while old 
trees are rejuvenated and their lives pro- 
longed indefinitely. By the application of 
these modern methods of intensive forestry, 
thousands of trees have already been re- 
stored in France. 

In the regions seemingly devastated be- 
yond hope by the invaders the work of re- 
forestry was quickly begun. The method 
is familiar in many sections of the United 
Stated. Trees are grown from seeds sown 
in hotbeds ; and these seeds sprout like grass. 

63 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

The tiny sprouts are separated and trans- 
planted, and on reaching a height of a few 
inches, are set out in specially prepared soil 
throughout the regions to be reforested. A 
bed of small trees a few feet in extent will 
some day spread out to cover great areas of 
land. To save time, small trees are im- 
ported, and a small package may contain 
trees that will some day reclothe mountains 
and valleys. The Forestry Regiment has 
not waited for the end of the war, but pushes 
forward as quickly as the Germans retreat. 

One of the most cruel outrages visited 
upon the invaded country by its plunderers 
has been the destruction of fruit-trees. The 
practice is forbidden by international law, 
and even in Biblical times and during the 
Roman conquests invaders spared such trees. 
Great orchards in Northern France have 
been ruthlessly and senselessly cut down, be- 
ing left, so it was supposed, to die on the 
ground. 

Among the first to reach this devastated 
land have been the tree-surgeons. These 
men represent a branch of technical engi- 
neering that the Germans had overlooked. 
64 



FOREST AND FARM REGIMENTS 

By these specialists the cross-sections of the 
trees are treated and joined, and the trunks 
are bandaged and fastened together by 
means of splints. A convalescent period fol- 
lows, when the soil is renewed and the with- 
ered branches are pruned away. The 
French soil responds quickly to the touch of a 
friendly hand, and many thousands of these 
trees have blossomed again. 

No plan in the complicated problem of re- 
storing these devastated areas has been ne- 
glected. The regiments of American engi- 
neers have included a number of agricultural 
experts, who have made minute surveys of 
the farm-lands. On the retreat of the en- 
emy, these once fertile fields are often found 
in an appalling condition. For instance, it 
is impossible to imagine more hopeless fields 
than the region known as '*no-man's-land." 
There the earth has literally been torn to 
pieces by the explosion of the most deadly 
shells ever devised. The crater-holes are 
sometimes twenty feet deep, with an even 
greater diameter. The heat from these 
countless explosions and the poisonous gases 
have seared the ground, killing vegetation. 

65 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

Besides, thousands of the shells have buried 
themselves in the earth without exploding, 
and the farmers are in constant fear that a 
chance blow from a plough or rake will set 
them off. 

Our engineers have collected various types 
of such shells and made careful tests. They 
have found that a shell whose detonator has 
not gone off after traveling five or ten miles 
through the air is practically harmless. 
Tests, made by striking them with bars of 
iron, showed that the farmer's danger is ex- 
tremely slight. It was found, on taking such 
shells apart and analysing their mechanism 
and chemical contents, that after they have 
been buried in damp earth for a few months 
it was practcially impossible to explode them. 
Therefore the farmer may safely pick up 
these old shells as if they were so many 
stones and throw them to one side, or plough 
them under. The examinations of the 
American experts have done much to reas- 
sure the French farmers. 

It was feared that the terrific force of re- 
peated explosions had destroyed the rich top- 
soil and would render this once fertile land 

66 



FOREST AND FARM REGIMENTS 

barren for a generation to come. To the eye 
of the layman the appearance of this land is 
appalling. An American expert on the 
chemical qualities of various soils, who has 
studied these regions, has made a fortunate 
discovery. He finds that, while the non- 
humus-bearing, or lower, soil has been 
thrown up in great quantity by the explo- 
sions, the effect is likely to have a beneficial 
result. The explosions have served to 
loosen this lower strata, similar to the result 
accomplished in America when farmers dy- 
namite the hard-pan, so that roots may 
reach the lower strata with its heavier mois- 
ture. This expert points out that, for every 
pound of this subsoil that has been disturbed, 
a much larger quantity of the topsoil, which 
is rich in vegetable matter, has been widely 
scattered over the surface. Earth disturbed 
by a shell-explosion takes the form of an 
inverted cone, and it is the base or f rustrum 
of this cone that is sifted about. 

After this amazing upheaval the surface 
soil is believed to be far richer than it was 
before, and thus will yield better crops for 
many years to come. American observers 

67 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

have found flowers growing in such soil, — 
scattered clumps of petunias, nasturtiums, 
and snapdragons, the seeds of which had sur- 
vived many explosions and had doubtless 
been turned over many times. Often in the 
most hopeless-looking soil patches of corn, 
barley, oats, and Indian corn have sprouted, 
the seeds of which must have been thrown 
high in the air by repeated explosions. Both 
the flowers and the grain are stronger and 
more vigorous than those grown in the orig- 
inal soil, even when richly manured. 

The fear that the effect on vegetation of 
poisonous gases from exploding shells will 
continue for many years appears to be 
groundless. Investigation by experts has 
shown that the fumes bleach the grass and 
shrubbery, so that it wilts and lies upon the 
ground, but that the roots are rarely injured 
and after a few days or weeks will begin to 
sprout again. Within a month the most 
rugged shell-holes are usually covered with 
a heavy, rank vegetation of surprising va- 
riety. A few months after the most violent 
battles the fields and crops are found to be 
the richest ever seen on French soil. » 
68 



FOREST AND FARM REGIMENTS 

The battle-fields are often covered with 
litter that can only be removed by great la- 
bor. The barbed wire from the entangle- 
ments is easily picked up, while much of it 
may be ploughed into the soil. The debris 
includes pieces of railroad iron, sheets of 
corrugated iron, used for roofing or lining 
the trenches, pieces of concrete, and many 
heavy objects, — all of which must be labor- 
iously collected and carted off, much as the 
farmers at home clear up a stony field. 

The problem of leveling the fields and 
making them ready for the plough and har- 
row has also been carefully studied by Amer- 
ican engineers. To "clean up" the rugged 
surface of a country, broken by innumerable 
shell-craters, of course involves enormous 
labor. Nature has, however, already com- 
menced to lend a hand in the work. An or- 
dinary shell-hole is filled up at the rate of a 
foot or more a year, merely by the dust blown 
into it and the silt deposited by the rain. 
The great shell-crater at Pozieres, for m- 
stance, was in one year filled to a depth of 
many* feet by the action of wind, snow, and 
rain. 

69 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

Ordinary farm-tractors would prove use- 
less on such land. It is even found ex- 
tremely difficult to draw scrapers and shovels 
over these holes. A very happy idea has 
been conceived to solve this unprecedented 
problem. After the war, the engineers point 
out, there will be thousands of tanks in 
France without any fighting to occupy them. 
The ingenious caterpillar tractors, with their 
great driving force, are ideal tools to crawl 
over the most rugged country and drag after 
them leveling shovels, ploughs, and harrows. 
General Grant's famous order to let the sol- 
diers keep their horses to use on the fields 
may be repeated by turning over these great 
fleets of tractors to the farmers of France. 

Let the Germans retreat, surrendering any 
sector of French fields, and the engineers and 
toilers of the soil are found in instant readi- 
ness to advance. When the enemy swept 
over this fertile country the peasants were 
always among the last to retreat. They had 
been accustomed for centuries to plough a 
certain furrow, and continued to do so un- 
disturbed, even when they found themselves 
under fire. French troops often had to use 

70 



FOREST AND FARM REGIMENTS 

force to persuade the farmers to abandon 
their land, when the rich fields had to be 
transformed into trenches. 

Once these fields have been freed from the 
invader, the rural population sweeps back. 
In an incredible short time the scars of war 
begin to disappear. The government engi- 
neers lend all possible assistance in restoring 
farm-machinery or replacing it. If the 
home and the farm-buildings have been de- 
stroyed, which is a common occurrence, they 
rebuild them, — in part at least, — or a tem- 
porary wooden building, manufactured 
wholesale, is rushed to the place. 

American observers in this region are 
amazed at the thrift and adaptability of the 
French. An American family under simi- 
lar conditions would require continued as- 
sistance before it became independent. Give 
a French family a shelter, a pair of rabbits, a 
few chickens, and some food, and it is soon 
self-supporting. Upon so firm a founda- 
tion rests the future of Northern France. 

Engineers have been organized for this 
herculean work of restoration. Every need 
of the farmer resident of this restored region 

73 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

is studied with intelligent sympathy. Roads 
are quickly rebuilt ; bridges of every form are 
repaired, or new structures brought to re- 
place the old ones; canals are rebuilt, and 
streams are turned back to their ancient 
courses. In a single year these wastes have 
been made to yield valuable crops. 



74 



CHAPTER V 

ARMS AND THE AUTOMOBILE 

THROUGHOUT the United States to- 
day the automobile industry displays 
''service flags" liberally sprinkled with stars. 
No class of America's fighting engineers was 
more prompt to reach the war zone, and none 
has continued to recruit men more freely. 
Early in the war thousands of Americans 
volunteered to drive ambulances, motor- 
trucks, and automobiles of every type, and 
their skill and daring became familiar to the 
French, British, and Italian armies. 

On America's entrance into the war the 
motor industries were quickly mobilized, and 
their wealth of experience in constructive 
work was placed at the disposal of our Gov- 
ernment. It is not generally realized, per- 
haps, that the United States, with its 4,250,- 
000 motor-vehicles of all types, has about 
four times as many cars as all the rest of the 

75 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

world. Considering the vital importance of 
the automobile in war-engineering, the 
weight of these resources is certain to prove 
a vital factor in winning the war. Since 
1 914 the United States has supplied the Al- 
lies with more than 50,000 motor-trucks, to- 
gether with an army of men to run them. 

Since many of the officials of the leading 
motor manufacturing companies have volun- 
teered and received commissions, the best en- 
gineering talent of the country is to-day in 
the service of our Government. Twenty- 
five representatives of our leading automo- 
bile manufacturers are in France, adminis- 
tering the motor-service. A single organi- 
zation — the Motor-Truck Club of America 
— has recruited 2000 chauffeurs, of whom 
1400 have been mustered in. At the request 
of the Government, training schools have 
been established for transport-officers and 
men. All kinds of workers in the automo- 
bile industry are being specially trained, in 
order that this great power may be directed 
efficiently. 

No other service of our fighting engineers 
has been recruited in such force. For ev- 

76 



ARMS AND THE AUTOMOBILE 

ery twenty-one men America will have under 
arms, she will furnish two motor-vehicles. 
An army of 1,000,000 soldiers will be sup- 
plied with 95,000 automobiles of a bewilder- 
ing variety of types. The greatest mobiliza- 
tion of motor-vehicles heretofore was at 
Verdun, where the cars, if placed fifteen 
feet apart, would have extended more than 
six hundred miles. Even France, however, 
could only find one motor for every fifty men 
in her armies. The English army has man- 
aged to keep its front supplied with food and 
other necessities by employing one car for 
every sixty-six men. 

As late as the spring of 191 6, when Gen- 
eral Pershing was ordered to Mexico, the 
army was absurdly unprepared as to its mo- 
tor equipment. Great difficulty was expe- 
rienced in finding a score or more of motor- 
trucks adapted to the carrying of supplies to 
the army. In a period of less than two years 
the United States Army has become the best 
motorized army in the world. Until the 
Mexican trouble the motor was not popular 
in the army. It is a great tribute to Ameri- 
can ingenuity and energy that in this brief 

77 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

period so many new types o£ cars, suited to 
every service should have been designed and 
manufactured at a rate unprecedented in 
history. During the present year the United 
States will turn out 2,000,000 passenger-cars 
and 200,000 motor-trucks. 

Among the invaluable services automo- 
biles of every type have rendered throughout 
the war, three great achievements, at least, 
will go down in history. The rapid advance 
of the German forces through Belgium 
would have been impossible without the sup- 
port of motors. The transportation of men, 
ammunition, and food was accelerated be- 
yond all precedent, to the bewilderment of 
the Allies. Such an advance gave their op- 
ponents little time to mobilize, and Belgium 
was overrun before the French army could 
be brought up or England's expeditionary 
force could cross the Channel. 

But the French were quick to turn this 
same weapon against the invaders. Years 
of preparation had given the Germans great 
fleets of motor-trucks, which now stood 
ready to advance at a moment's notice. 
Within a few hours France had learned its 

78 



ARMS AND THE AUTOMOBILE 

lesson, and when General von Kluck's army 
threatened Paris it was the automobile that 
saved the capital. 

The French army did not possess motors in 
sufficient numbers, and Paris was drawn 
upon with feverish haste. The smooth, level 
roads running out of Paris proved invalu- 
able. Every form of car was pressed into 
service. Unbroken streams of automobile 
traffic were soon set in motion. Motor- 
trucks, taxicabs, auto-busses, and every form 
of private car were loaded with soldiers. 
The men filled the bodies, lay upon the roofs, 
and clung to the running-boards as the cars 
dashed forward. So great a force had never 
before been transported over open country at 
such a pace. But Paris was saved I 

Later, when the enemy concentrated his 
forces at Verdun, the motor proved the force 
behind the front that held the line firm. So 
great a mobilization of motors had never be- 
fore occurred in history. It is estimated 
that the ammunition carried by a standard 
auto-truck will supply one of the French 
guns for ten minutes. This army of motors 
moved in an endless stream over the famous 

79 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

Vergennes loop. On many of the roadways 
near the front the congestion of automobiles 
exceeded that on great American thorough- 
fares, — even that on Fifth Avenue during 
the rush hours. As the traffic converged at 
the front, the stream of vehicles knew no in- 
terruption through the twenty-four hours. 

The rapid evolution of the war automobile 
was unforeseen. Twenty years had been 
required to develop the early types of ''horse- 
less carriage" to the present models, but the 
necessities of war demanded quicker action. 
It is estimated that to-day there are over 
100,000 automobiles of various types on the 
Allies' side of the trenches. 

A highly-specialized form of automobile is 
demanded for war. At first the ordinary 
type of commercial truck was employed; but 
under new and untried conditions it proved 
inefficient. The war truck must be light, yet 
capable of hauling a trailer and of operating 
over rough roads. The five-ton truck of 
commerce answered no better than the orig- 
inally designed two-ton truck, and a compro- 
mise was finally struck by building a three- 
and-a-half-ton truck. 

80 



ARMS AND THE AUTOMOBILE 

Even to the experienced motorist the re- 
sults of countless experiments in developing 
a standard type v^ill come as a surprise. It 
has been found that four cylinders serve bet- 
ter than six. To get the best staying power 
out of a loaded car on an eight per cent, gra- 
dient, new gears and systems of piston-dis- 
placement had to be worked out. The chain- 
drive is replaced by the worm-drive. Gaso- 
line is the only fuel that will stand up under 
the strain. On poor roadways a driver can- 
not hope to get more than 1500 miles out of 
his tires, and often it is only 200 miles. A 
hundred details of construction have been 
changed, reversing the familiar experience 
of experts in less troublous times. 

Early in the war, as the armies began "to 
dig themselves in," French engineers looked 
about for labor-saving devices for trench- 
digging. The problem presented was unpre- 
cedented. Thousands of miles of trenches 
had to be dug; and time was priceless. If 
the work were done by hand, as in the early 
stages of the war, a great force of soldiers 
must be thus employed who were badly 
needed for fighting. It was at length de- 

83 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

cided to intrust the problem to American in- 
genuity. 

Thereupon several manufacturers of ma- 
chinery in the United States were invited to 
study the problem and devise a new type of 
ditch-digger, suitable for military work. 
The trench-digger constructed in America 
and rushed to the front proved to be one of 
the most dependable engines of the Great 
War, and it has released many thousands of 
soldiers for more active service. 

The operation of this trench-digger is as 
follows: Upon the heavy motor-truck chas- 
sis, so familiar in the United States, is 
mounted an ingenious bucket-excavator of 
the continuous-belt type. The buckets, car- 
ried steadily forward by the belt, scoop up 
the earth at a surprising rate, and carry it up 
to chutes which dump it to one side of the 
machine. The machinery is so powerful 
that it will attack any soil however hard and 
rocky. The belt, with its train of buckets, 
may be quickly adjusted to any angle. By 
merely shifting a lever the power is supplied 
by the motor of the automobile. An engine 
of 100 horse-power has been found sufficient 

84 



ARMS AND THE AUTOMOBILE 

to drive the machine at a rapid pace, and to 
operate the digging apparatus in the toughest 
soils. Each digger, manned by a crew of 
only five men and a chauffeur, readily does 
the work of one hundred soldiers armed with 
the primitive pick and shovel. Each bat- 
tery of ten diggers, therefore, releases a reg- 
iment of men. 

A fleet of trench-diggers is probably the 
most mobile unit among all the constructive 
machinery employed in the Great War. 
These machines are held in instant readiness 
for any movement, like so many fire engines. 
The crews sleep beside their machines, ready 
to spring to their places and rush their en- 
gines to any part of the field. Let the enemy 
retreat or advance, so that a new line of 
trenches is required, and the trench-diggers 
are rushed to the point as quickly as our fire- 
men respond with their engines and ladders. 
The digging machinery is set in rapid mo- 
tion. While the troops a few feet away may 
be checking the enemy's advance, a trench is 
scooped out of the earth, and thus by the aid 
of this 'Shelter the day is saved. 

It is estimated that if all the trenches dug 
85 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

in the present war were straightened out and 
placed end to end, they would more than 
circle the earth. It would have been impos- 
sible without the trench-diggers to dig 25,- 
000 miles of trenches of the modern type. 
Much of the work, of course, is carried on 
well behind the firing-line. As the trench is 
cut out, workmen strengthen the sides with 
boards, limbs of trees, or metal plates. 
Grooved steel plates, about ten inches in 
width and six feet in height, are often em- 
ployed. These may be slipped into place and 
securely locked without the use of screws or 
hammers. 

Another characteristic American inven- 
tion is a searchlight mounted on a collapsible 
tower and carried by a fast motor-truck. It 
resembles the familiar water-tower of our 
fire departments. The searchlight is of the 
powerful type used in the navy. When un- 
der fire, or when traversing rough country, 
the tower is folded back, so that the car is 
no more exposed than is an ordinary automo- 
bile. The electricity for the lamp is gener- 
ated by the automobile-engine. 

[The searchlight may be rushed to any 
86 



ARMS AND THE AUTOMOBILE 

point to which an automobile can penetrate, 
and the Hght may be raised to its maximum 
height as quickly as our tower-hose is 
brought into action. Its powerful rays will 
illuminate an object many miles distant, thus 
revealing the activities of the enemy when 
he least expects it. Again, from its elevated 
position it will light up a large tract of land, 
turning night into day. The first of these 
American searchlights accompanied the 
First Regiment of United States Engineers. 
Among countless types of specialized auto- 
mobiles for war use now built in America 
are a number of trucks equipped to repair 
shoes. These are manned by crews of ex- 
pert shoemakers and carry the latest shoe- 
making machinery. The waste of shoes at 
the front is enormous. After a battle dis- 
carded shoes are picked up by the thousands, 
and the perambulating cobblers set to work. 
No shoe is so badly worn that some part of 
it cannot be utilized. When the leather is 
stiff it is soaked in chemical baths until pli- 
able, after which it is scraped and patched. 
Even' when a shoe is hopelessly worn out, 
some part of it may be cut away and used 

87 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

again. Thus nothing is wasted. A single 
shoe-repairing unit will sometimes turn out 
two thousand shoes in a day. 

Were it left to a popular vote, the favorite 
unit of equipment carried by our engineering 
regiments to France would doubtless prove 
to be the motor-kitchen. The perambulating 
kitchen, — which is really a marvel of com- 
pleteness, — is mounted on a powerful motor- 
truck, and may be rushed along ordinary 
roads at a forty-mile pace if occasion should 
demand. 

The kitchen has three main compartments : 
a refrigerator at the front, a storage place 
for perishable foods amidships, and a large 
three-open range at the rear. On this range 
four large kettles or pots may be heated at 
a time. Overhead, an ingenious system of 
derricks and block-and-tackle devices enables 
the cook to move his cooking-utensils about 
with ease. 

In no branch of the service is the motor- 
vehicle so indispensable as in the Ordnance 
Corps. Trucks to carry ammunition and 
tractors to haul the big guns have been con- 
structed for this corps on a lavish scale. It 

88 



ARMS AND THE AUTOMOBILE 

is estimated that the Ordance Department 
will have in all about 60,000 motor-vehicles, 
and of these fully 10,0000 will be tractors. 
A three-ton truck, which seems so efficient 
in our city streets, will carry enough ammu- 
nition to supply one of our ten-inch howitzers 
for about ten minutes. It is obvious that 
an unbroken line of motor-vehicles must span 
the spaces between the supply-bases and the 
great batteries, if the artillery fire is to be 
continuous. The Quartermasters' Depart- 
ment will have about half as many trucks as 
the Ordnance Department. 

No engine of warfare has undergone so 
complete a transformation in so short a pe- 
riod of time as the ''land-ships," or tanks. 
The armored automobile, from which tanks 
have been evolved, had appeared in several 
forms before the war, but no great conquest 
was hoped for it. In the construction of the 
primitive machine a conventional chassis was 
employed, and the more vulnerable parts 
were protected with light armor-plate. A 
light field-gun was sometimes mounted on it. 
In n6 sense, however, was it a fort, being de- 
signed to carry despatches or to convoy 

89 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

troop-trains in exposed territory. During 
the early stages of the war in Belgium such 
cars were used with good effect in small 
frays, in attacking enemy outposts, and in 
surprise attacks preparatory to a general ad- 
vance. 

As the great armies settled down to 
trench-warfare all roads in the vicinity of 
no-man's-land disappeared, and even the 
lightest cars found the open country impos- 
sible. The usefulness of the armored auto- 
mobile seemed at an end. The tanks, which 
are perhaps the most sensational achieve- 
ment of the fighting engineers, came as a 
complete surprise. In their present form 
these tanks are virtually perambulating forts 
whose defenses are proof against any ordi- 
nary attack that field-troops can direct 
against them. 

To the enemy, the most baffling feature of 
the tank is its ability to move at will over 
land that would be impassable for ordinary 
vehicles. The gaping shell-craters and fur- 
rows of these areas, though cut wide and 
deep, are, nevertheless, readily surmounted 
by the new engine of war. The tank is 

90 




o 




•■su^il A a 



ARMS AND THE AUTOMOBILE 

mounted on endless corduroy belts, and is 
steered by large flange-wheels at the rear. 
In passing over the roughest land the tank 
maintains a speed of looo yards an hour, or 
something more than a half-mile. When 
the first of these tanks appeared in America, 
taking part in a military parade on Fifth 
Avenue, it moved over the paved street at the 
speed of an ordinary pedestrian and with 
surprising smoothness. 

The British land-ships are of two forms, 
known as the "male" and "female" tanks. 
The male, which is the more formidable, 
has sponsors built on either side, in which 
six-pound guns are mounted behind movable 
shields. The sponsors are sometimes built 
with five sides, so that the guns may be 
swung in a wide arc, covering the ground at 
the sides, and can be fired parallel to the axis 
of the tanks. 

Each of these cars also carries several ma- 
chine-guns, or at least four "Lewis" guns, to 
serve as a supplementary battery. The fe- 
male -tanks are less deadly than the male, and 
each carries six "Lewis" guns. The tanks 
weigh thirty tons. They ajre driven by 105- 

93 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

horse-power motors of the silent type. The 
crew of each tank consists of an officer and 
seven men. 

These perambulating forts are impreg- 
nable when attacked by either rifle or ma- 
chine-gun. The armor employed at present 
consists of plates one fourth of an inch in 
thickness, made of steel of a special compo- 
sition. The openings for the guns are so 
contrived that the crews are comparatively 
safe from attack, even though the tank be 
surrounded by the enemy. These tanks are 
painted fantastically in brown, yellow, and 
green, to make them harmonize with the 
landscape. While advancing at night or in 
a fog they are very difficult targets to hit. 

The sensations of the crew in an attacking 
tank furnish experience unique in warfare. 
The interior of the traveling fort barely ac- 
commodates the crew of seven men. The 
steering-wheel is placed forward, so that the 
driver may look ahead through narrow slits 
in the armor. The two field-guns are 
mounted amidships. The tanks have no 
springs of any kind, which makes rough go- 
ing for the crew. Since the forward end 
94 



ARMS AND THE AUTOMOBILE 

rakes up at an angle of thirty degrees, to en- 
able it to climb trenches, the tank is often 
pointed at an even steeper angle, when the 
crew must hold on by main strength. The 
jolting when passing over rough ground is 
extremely painful. It is said that if the 
tanks moved faster than looo yards an hour 
over such surfaces, the movement would be- 
come dangerous for the crew. Increase this 
motion by the violent vibration of the steel 
walls as they are peppered with the fire from 
rifles and from machine-guns, often dis- 
charged point-blank at the tank, and a ride 
in the enemy's territory becomes a strenuous 
experience. 

In the famous advance of the tanks at 
Cambrai one of these traveling forts became 
separated from the fleet, and at a critical mo- 
ment its engine suddenly stalled. The Ger- 
mans, who had been keeping at a respectful 
distance, hailed this accident with shouts of 
joy, and rushed forward. As the driver 
struggled frantically with his engine, the 
enemy swarmed about the tank, climbed upon 
it and sought the observation openings, in 
order to shoot the crew like rats in a trap. 

95 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

At such short range the guns of the moving 
fort were useless, and to open the doors and 
make a sortie against such overwhelming 
forces would have been hopeless. At this 
critical moment the engines — as is the way 
of engines — suddenly ''picked up." The 
tank moved slowly forward, and then, gath- 
ering momentum, shook off the enemy cling- 
ing about it and soon crawled within the pro- 
tecting range of its brother-tanks. 

The French tanks differ materially from 
the English models. In the former the belts 
are better protected from shell-attack and are 
less liable to break. They are shorter than 
the British, however, and such tanks are 
likely to get stuck in crater-holes from which 
a British tank might readily crawl out. The 
French tanks carry on their roofs a camou- 
flage canvas, which can be readily unrolled 
and let down to cover the tank when at rest. 
Many of these machines carry the famous 
French 75 's, mounted inside the car, with 
their muzzles pointing directly ahead. 

With America's entrance into the war has 
come a new development and a more general 
application of the tank. ^The British used 

96 



ARMS AND THE AUTOMOBILE 

the American tractor as the basis for their 
tanks, increasing the motive power and pay- 
ing special attention to heavy armor and 
large guns. The result has been the con- 
struction of formidable moving forts, v^ith 
a corresponding loss of lightness and mobil- 
ity, which thus renders them rather clumsy 
in supporting infantry action. The French 
made fewer changes in the original Ameri- 
can model and employed lighter armor and 
guns. At the same time their tanks are less 
cumbersome and less powerful than the Brit- 
ish type. 

Profiting by the experience of the English 
and the French, the latest form of American 
tank combines the two systems. A great 
fleet of tanks of several types has been built 
for General Pershing which includes both 
heavy and light machines, the fleet being 
thus adapted to a variety of purposes. The 
heavier American tanks will be used to sup- 
port our artillery in the field, while the lighter 
models may be used for transporting artillery 
and motor-lorries over rough roads where 
ordinary'automobiles could not pass. A bat- 
tery of field-guns may thus be drawn into ac- 

97 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

tion under a fire that would prove deadly to 
exposed troops or ordinary automobile-trac- 
tors. In other words, American tanks will 
fight the enemy and bring heavy guns into 
action at the same time. 

American forces have been provided with 
tanks in the same liberal spirit that marks the 
supply of other equipment. An appropria- 
tion of over $50,000,000 has been set aside 
to construct these fleets of tanks. Their 
motors will range from 12 to 250 horse- 
power. Many of our tanks have already 
been completed and shipped safely to France. 
With such a fleet at his disposal, General 
Pershing, thanks to American engineering 
ingenuity, will have enough tanks to keep up 
with infantry advances and maintain a sus- 
tained ofifensive action unique in the history 
of warfare. 



98 



CHAPTER VI 

THE FAMOUS IITH ENGINEERS 

GENERAL GRANT is credited with 
saying that his troops, recruited from 
many trades and professions, formed the 
most efficient army ever assembled for solv- 
ing engineering problems. In recruiting the 
nth Engineers this ideal of general efficiency 
has been completely realized. The regiment 
is believed to be unique in the history of war- 
fare. Among its 1300 engineers and skilled 
workmen is enlisted much of the best talent 
in America. Many of the engineers have 
cheerfully given up large incomes in order 
to devote their skill and, if need be, their 
lives to the service. 

In no department of engineering is Amer- 
ica better prepared to lend assistance than 
in work connected with the water-supply. 
Throughout the United States every con- 
ceivable problem of supply has been encoun- 

99 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

tered, and this varied experience has served 
to train a great body of highly efficient work- 
men. The Catskill Aqueduct, for example, 
outclasses any similar work abroad, while 
the famous Roman aqueducts seem primitive 
by comparison. A number of engineers 
prominent in the Catskill project are to-day 
in France, as are hundreds of others whose 
names are associated with the greatest engi- 
neering projects of our country. In a recent 
letter from the front a former Catskill en- 
gineer writes that he finds the work abroad 
the most difficult in all his experience. 

Several of the engineers of this regiment 
have been assigned the ambitious task of sup- 
plying water for great bodies of troops, as 
well as for cities and towns throughout 
France. Projects which would require 
years to plan and build at home must now be 
rushed through, for a day's delay may cause 
disaster. Much of the work must be done 
under fire. A lucky shot from a German 
battery may destroy at a stroke the labor of 
weeks, but the engineers must be ready day 
and night for any such emergency. 

Watersheds have been selected and sur- 

lOO 



THE FAMOUS iith ENGINEERS 

veyed. Dams are built and water-mains laid 
for miles up hill and down dale. The mains 
are carried over rapidly-constructed trestles, 
or, again, are concealed from the German 
fire by ingenious camouflage. It is often dif- 
ficult to fmd suitable material, and ingenious 
makeshifts have to be resorted to. The regi- 
ment includes several bacteriologists whose 
judgment is followed in anaylzing water or 
the soil through which it drains. One of the 
first duties of these bacteriologists on reach- 
ing reoccupied territory is to make careful 
analysis of the wells and water-courses, since 
the Germans frequently poison them when 
evacuating the country. 

To complete the work of devastation, the 
enemy, on retreating, often floods great 
tracts of land. The skill of American en- 
gineers had not been counted upon in these 
plans. It is just such problems that our en- 
gineers, fresh from great Western irrigat- 
ing projects, are prepared to face. No time 
is lost in theorizing. Surveys are quickly 
completed, and large forces of men attack 
the work. By some ingenious arrangement 
of dams and sluices, or the hasty construc- 

lOI 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

tion of new water-channels, large areas of 
country have been drained in a few hours. 
Invaluable work is being done in purifying 
the water-supplies of camps and cities by 
modern methods employed in the United 
States. 

A well-known American engineer, now in 
France, recently wrote to a friend at home, 
asking him to send some illustrated cata- 
logues of the American machinery commonly 
used in water-supply. He explained that he 
did not wish to buy such machinery, and 
could not get it over if he did, but he wanted 
to have the satisfaction of showing the cata- 
logues to the French and English engineers, 
who could not believe that such machinery 
as he described actually existed. 

The war has necessitated mining opera- 
tions on an enormous scale. Expert geolo- 
gists are enlisted to examine the soil and de- 
cide what material will be encountered at 
different levels in the regions to be tunneled. 
One tunnel 1663 ^^^^ in length has been ex- 
cavated, for example, from which 2200 cu- 
bic yards of earth and rock were removed. 
The miners use pneumatic rock-drills and all 
102 



THE FAMOUS iith ENGINEERS 

the latest mining machinery. The working- 
squads consist of twenty-five or thirty men, 
laboring in shifts of six hours. 

Excavations usually take the form of long 
tunnels, dug at a slight incline to the hori- 
zontal. Such tunnels are often run ahead of 
the front trench for a length of lOO to 125 
feet under no-man's-land, which carries them 
directly beneath trenches occupied by the 
enemy. On reaching the desired point, the 
tunnel is widened to a chamber where ex- 
plosives may be placed. In such work the 
dimensions are kept as small as possible, 
leaving only room enough for the dirt and 
stone to be removed. The longer tunnels are 
usually kept three feet wide and from four 
to six feet high. When not over 100 feet in 
length they are only three feet high, while 
the width is often not more than thirty 
inches. In order to save time, which is 
priceless under such conditions, the men work 
in tunnels that compel them to stop over and 
crawl about the excavations like moles. 

The progress of the work depends, of 
course, upon the nature of the material to be 
removed. If conditions are favorable, a 
103 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

tunnel may be pushed forward at a rate of 
from fifteen to twenty feet every twenty- 
four hours. When the earth and stone of- 
fers great resistance, progress may be re- 
duced to three feet a day. The earth may 
prove to be so soft that the roof of the tunnel 
must be continually braced with timbers. 
As the tunnels advance, narrow tracks are 
laid and small cars, pushed by hand, are used 
to carry the earth to the opening of the shaft. 
One of the greatest dangers that faces these 
fighting engineers is that their work will be 
discovered by the enemy and a counter-mine 
be employed against it. It sometimes hap- 
pens that engineers will locate the position 
of an enemy tunnel, force a hollow pipe un- 
der it, and explode a mine directly beneath 
the workmen. An alert watch must con- 
stantly be maintained by the miners far un- 
derground to detect the approach of an en- 
emy tunnel. It can readily be seen that 
modern American machinery and methods, 
such as the electric and pneumatic drills em- 
ployed by our American engineers, are prov- 
ing invaluable. 

The idea in such work is, of course, to un- 
104 




With the forestry rcLdnient 



'<*'' 



THE FAMOUS iith ENGINEERS 

dermine the enemy's position, while excavat- 
ing soil that offers the minimum amount of 
resistance. When the tunnel has reached its 
maximum length, the explosives are set in 
position and electrically connected with the 
base. The tamping is done with concrete, 
sand-bags and heavy wooden beams. The 
famous ridge at Messines was undermined 
by ninety excavations, in which five hundred 
tons of high explosives were simultaneously 
exploded. 

In recruiting a large force of mining 
engineers and experienced mine-workers 
America draws upon a large and skilful body 
of men. Only those men were selected who 
had had much actual experience as engineers. 
They are men who know rock and soil and 
who can judge' its strength at a glance. In 
this force men are to be found capable of 
solving every possible mining problem that 
may be encountered. 

It is a high tribute to America's reputation 
in this field that the French Government has 
entrusted some of its important mining oper- 
ations to this regiment. Both coal and iron 
mines are being worked in France to-day by 
107 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

complete units of American miners. One of 
these units can take over the entire work of 
operating a mine — the location of ores, the 
construction of tunnels, the building of sup- 
porting timbers, and the laying down of rail- 
roads for the purpose of getting out the ore. 

The miners cheerfully face a lively danger 
in their tunnel-work in the front-line 
trenches. Here they must select the most 
vulnerable point in the German lines and run 
long tunnels forward under the enemy posi- 
tion. By exploding mines directly beneath 
the trenches, the way is prepared for an ad- 
vance. In order to carry out such enter- 
prises, the miners must know earth and rock, 
and must stake their lives upon their judg- 
ment. A mistake in calculating the strength 
of materials may cause them to be buried as 
they work, or may attract the attention of 
the enemy before the tunnel is completed. 

The workers in subways or tunnels are ob- 
jects of sympathy, but their position is safe 
by comparison with these men. One of the 
most perilous tasks the mining engineer 
workers are called upon to perform is to 
extend hollow pipes from the front-line 
1 08 



THE FAMOUS iith ENGINEERS 

trenches under the enemy's position. High 
explosives are set off at the end of these pipes 
by an electric-spark. The position of the 
soldiers in the front-line trenches is at best 
perilous, but that of the workmen, whose re- 
treat is practically cut off, calls for rare cour- 
age. , 

In preparing for General Byng's famous 
drive, it was found absolutely essential that 
a considerable amount of engineering work 
be completed before the advance was or- 
dered. This work was entrusted to Ameri- 
can engineers, assisted by American work- 
men. A British officer high in command 
urged that the work be rushed as fast as pos- 
sible, and asked for an estimate of the time 
required. It was decided that even by work- 
ing on an American time-schedule more than 
eleven days would be required. The censor 
has not permitted any description of the na- 
ture of this work to come through. 

The British staff decided that they could 
not wait eleven days to begin the drive, and 
urged greater speed. A great force of coolie 
labor was offered to hasten the work. This 
offer was refused, the American engineer 
109 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

much preferring his own workmen. The 
construction work was completed, neverthe- 
less, in less than five days, and the famous 
advance started on schedule time. The en- 
gineer in charge of this work has written 
home that he found time for only eight and a 
half hours sleep during more than five days. 
The end of the job found him so exhausted 
that he lay down beside a battery of twelve- 
inch guns, and even their bombardment 
failed to disturb him. The work of the 
Americans has received most enthusiastic 
praise from British officers. 

When the proportion of deaths and cas- 
ualties is definitely counted after the war, it 
will doubtless be found that the fighting en- 
gineers have suffered severely. Apart from 
the obvious danger of working under fire, 
these men are exposed to every kind of ac- 
cident common among workers with machin- 
ery. In the building and operating of rail- 
roads on rush-schedules, under new condi- 
tions and while using new amd unfamiliar 
materials, the risk is naturally great. Re- 
ports of such accidents are already coming 
in, and the demand for false limbs, glass 
no 



THE FAMOUS iith ENGINEERS 

eyes, and other surgical material tells its 
own story. 

The first man of the American engineers 
to be invalided home is, at this writing, in a 
hospital in Baltimore, suffering from a 
broken hip. A railroad accident is likely to 
be more serious than a bullet-wound, and the 
fighting engineers face both dangers. 

The spirit of the American engineers at 
Cambrai, which has been so highly praised 
abroad, was no surprise to their friends at 
home. The British Commander in Chief, 
Sir Douglas Haig, has especially praised and 
recommended for a decoration Lieutenant 
Paul McLoud, of the American Engineering 
Corps, for his bravery in the Battle of Cam- 
brai. 

The Americans were busy on the morning 
of November 3, 1917, building a railroad- 
yard near the British front, when they were 
surprised by a sudden German advance. 
Without a moment's warning, the Germans 
concentrated a heavy artillery-fire on the 
yard. Lieutenant McLoud collected his men 
and calmly marched them through the Ger- 
man barrage to a point of safety. They had 
III 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

retreated about two miles, when they chanced 
upon a number of British soldiers. McLoud 
at once took command and, rallying the 
troops, returned to the firing-line. On the 
way back the Americans met a British staff 
of^cer, and with his aid they succeeded in 
getting additional arms and ammunition with 
which to equip the engineers of the party. 

Once armed, the improvised troops rushed 
forward and were soon in the thick of the 
fight, giving an excellent account of them- 
selves. Lieutenant McLoud was formerly 
chief engineer of the New York State High- 
way Department, and was one of the first to 
enlist in an engineering regiment. It is from 
such material that America has recruited her 
regiments of fighting engineers. 

The bravery of the fighting engineers at 
Cambrai called forth the following letter 
from Colonel Henry W. Hidge, U. S. A., to 
Mr. Mac Isaac the father of one of the men. 
The colonel writes : 

I want to write you a line of congratulation on 
the conduct of your son in the recent conflict with 
the Boches. 

Every one here says that, but for his heroism and 

112 



THE FAMOUS iith ENGINEERS 

those who were with him from the Engineers, 

we might have had a serious fall-back, but that he 
and Lieutenant McLoud and a few others rallied 
their men and our soldiers and held the Boches. 
I hear that the Allied commander will probably 
give especial recognition to their gallantry, and I am 
sure that you will be glad that your boy is one of 
the first to show that we Americans are going to do 
our part in this great struggle. 

At the present writing, at least fifteen 
members of the nth Engineers are known 
to be prisoners in Germany. The capture 
was made in the famous advance at Cambrai, 
and indicates that the Americans must have 
been very near the first-line troops. In this 
campaign an advance was originally planned 
on a thirty-mile front, with the assistance of 
the famous tanks. Later the forces were 
concentrated, but, as all the world knows, 
the British troops pushed forward for five 
miles. 

The wedge thus driven into the enemy's 
territory was open to attack on three sides, 
which rendered the position extremely pre- 
carious. The American engineers, never- 
theless, pushed forward into this territory, in 

113 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

order to consolidate the position. A simul- 
taneous attack quickly developed on three 
sides, and the position proved untenable. 
Doubtless our engineers could have saved 
themselves, but they remained at their posts 
until overtaken and made prisoners. 

The relatives of members of the nth En- 
gineers have formed an association in New 
York, an example that may well be followed 
elsewhere. Headquarters have been estab- 
lished, a paper is published in the interests 
of the organization, and monthly meetings 
are held; The work of communicating with 
the men at the front and of caring for their 
families at home, if need arises, is carefully 
organized. An attractive feature of these 
meetings consists in reading letters from the 
men at the front, and plans are discussed for 
lending every possible assistance to the men 
in the camps, the wounded, and to prisoners. 
The honor list of the month, including the 
dead and wounded, is read, patriotic songs 
are sung, and prayers are offered. A collec- 
tion for the engineers is taken up by passing 
around a German helmet captured in the war. 



114 



CHAPTER VII 

THE MAN BEHIND THE GUNS 

MANY revolutionary ideas in the sci- 
ience of gunmaking have had their 
origin in the United States. By some bold 
stroke the American engineer has repeatedly 
set aside the usage of years and opened up 
an entirely new field of scientific conquest. 
Later the idea has been seized upon by Eu- 
ropeans, carried to perfection, and, in its 
ultimate development, turned against us. It 
is a proof of the peaceful ideals of one na- 
tion that, after originating ideas that may 
revolutionize warfare, we have allowed oth- 
ers to apply them. 

So rapid has been the advance in military 
science that the weapons of a generation ago 
are to-day only fit for decorations, — of 
doubtful artistic value, — in our public parks. 
The best guns of the Civil War period, made 
of cast-bronze or wrought-iron and strength- 
115 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

ened with metal bands, are as extinct as the 
stage-coach. Even the field-guns of the 
Spanish War are hopelessly outclassed. 
The field-artillery of the United States 
Army, previous to the Great War, comprised 
seven or eight types of guns, varying in bore 
from three to seven inches, which armament 
compared favorably, however, with the best 
European ordnance. 

The marvelously complex gun of modern 
warfare dates from the Crimean War. 
With the appearance of the breech-loading 
weapon, the ordnance which had determined 
the issue of battles for centuries began to 
disappear. Even the guns heard at Trafal- 
gar and Waterloo were soon silenced for- 
ever. 

The first great cast-iron guns to be used 
in actual battle were of American make, al- 
though they were heard in Europe during the 
engagement between the Kearsarge and the 
Alabama, in the English Channel, in 1864. 
At that period American guns were acknowl- 
edged to be the best, since American iron had 
a tensile strength of 40,000 pounds p'er 
116 



THE MAN BEHIND THE GUNS 

square inch, as against 20,000 pounds for 
English iron. 

But the heaviest guns of cast metal could 
not long withstand the explosions of modern 
charges, which appeared after the Crimean 
War, and the barrels were soon made of con- 
centric tubes welded together. American 
guns were strengthened by hoops of iron 
shrunk around the breech. Many experi- 
ments were tried, and the modern gun slowly 
took shape. The steel tubes that form the 
lining were first forced into the guns, but 
later the outer case of the gun was shrunken 
about them. 

By the year 1874 guns were made in Eng- 
land with an inner tube of steel encased in no 
less than five coils of wrought iron. The 
largest of these guns fired projectiles weigh- 
ing 1258 pounds, the power charge weigh- 
ing 170 pounds. Wrought-iron gradually 
disappeared, and the guns were made entirely 
of ste&l. The first all-steel gun appeared in 
France at so recent a date as 1881. 

The best engineering talent of the world 
has been engaged upon this problem of gun- 
117. 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

making. After countless experiments, all 
countries seem agreed upon the best method 
for turning out gun-barrels, much as details 
or workmanship may vary. The steel is 
first cast in ingot molds in the form of solid, 
truncated cones. The ingots are roughed 
out with several reheatings of the steel, and 
are then turned and bored roughly. The 
core is cut away and taken out in a single 
piece. An oil bath is employed in tempering 
the steel, when the rings are shrunken on, 
and the gun is ready to be filed. It has been 
found that a wire-wound gun offers greater 
resistance than one strengthened by any sys- 
tem of hoops. The tension the gun must 
withstand is, of course, calculated in ad- 
vance ; nothing is left to chance. 

The secret of the enormously increased 
effectiveness of modern ordnance lies, of 
course, in its power of resistance. There 
are two ways of increasing the firing-power 
of a gun : by lengthening its tube and by in- 
creasing the charge. The early guns had a 
length of twelve diameters. Some of the 
latest guns are fifty times that of their bore. 
The muzzle velocity of the high-powered 
ii8 



THE MAN BEHIND THE GUNS 

guns of the past was 7000 foot tons, as com- 
pared with about 53,000 foot tons in the case 
of the largest modern ordnance. An in- 
crease of 800 per cent, in driving force is 
thus obtained. 

The force of explosions has been increased 
by using nitro-explosives in place of gun- 
powder. Again, by using smokeless powder 
a much larger volume of gas is obtained than 
by the use of black powder, and hence its 
increased effectiveness. The wrought-iron 
guns had an elastic limit of twelve tons per 
square inch, while the limit of steel is twenty- 
one tons. 

Before the opening of the Great War the 
artillery available for use in the field included 
several types of direct-fire gun, ranging in 
caliber from three to four inches, with high- 
angle-fire guns or howitzers of from 4.7 to 
7 inches. The largest of these guns in the 
United States fired seven-inch projectiles. 
Some European countries were known to 
have larger guns, — even eight-inch guns. 

Meanwhile Germany had been secretly 
building and testing guns of unprecedented 
power, which for a time were to spread con- 
119 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

sternation among her enemies. The Krupp 
gun-works had turned out giant howitzers 
of 12 and even 16.5 inches. Tests were 
made on carefully -guarded proving-grounds, 
and the ''Busy Berthas," as they came to be 
called, were held in readiness. 

In designing this unheard-of ordnance the 
German engineers had definite targets in 
mind. The guns were intended to reduce the 
concrete foundations of Liege, Namur, and 
Maubeuge, which were supposed to be im- 
pregnable. The idea, by the way, did not 
originate with the Germans ; for similar guns 
had already been used by the Japanese 
against the Russians in Manchuria. Bor- 
rowing the idea, the Germans stole a march 
on their adversaries. Experts are not yet 
certain whether these great guns should be 
classed as howitzers or mortars. The true 
howitzer has a barrel somewhat shorter in 
proportion to its bore. The mortars of late 
years have been growing larger, but then, 
again, the new guns are too large for this 
classification. 

The world was not prepared for the explo- 
sions of the "Busy Berthas." The shells, 
120 



THE MAN BEHIND THE GUNS 

weighing looo pounds or more and aimed 
with amazing accuracy, crumpled up the sci- 
entific foundations of modern forts eight 
miles away. For some anxious days it 
seemed as though they could batter their way 
to Paris. Later they were used with appal- 
ling effectiveness to destroy trenches at Ver- 
dun. A single shot has buried fifty men, and 
their explosion is said to kill men within a ra- 
dius of 150 yards. The Austrian *'Skoda," 
a howitzer of 17 inches, throws shells weigh- 
ing 2800 pounds. In the bombardment of 
Dunkirk fifteen-inch shells were hurled 
twenty-two miles. 

The efficiency of such guns is due to the 
fact that they are readily portable and may 
be carried with surprising speed from place 
to place. Heretofore, guns of enormous 
power have been stationary and have only 
been available for coast-defense purposes. 
The new guns are cast in three parts, each 
of which may be loaded on a motor-truck of 
special construction. The gun is trundled 
on one truck, the carriage on another, and 
the foundation on a thir^. A crew of sev- 
eraj hundred men is employed to transport 
121 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

them. If the country permits, trucks are 
employed, while specially constructed rail- 
road-cars are sometimes used. It is said 
that the gun-crews are always ready, on a 
moment's notice, to destroy the guns by blow- 
ing them up, if they are threatened with cap- 
ture. 

Against the unprecedented attack of the 
*^Busy Berthas" the Allies for a time could 
bring no adequate defense. But the reign 
of the ''Busy Berthas" was short-lived. Al- 
though they were met only by guns of in- 
ferior size and range, the French set up an 
impregnable barrier, and the giant guns 
never arrived within range of Paris. By the 
time the Battle of Picardy was fought, the 
British were able to utilize great howitzers 
that threw shells weighing 1700 pounds a 
distance of seven miles, at a rate of one shot 
a minute. Like the German and Austrian 
ordnance, these guns were brought up on 
motor-trucks. In the Battle of the Somme 
the pendulum had swung back, and the Al- 
lies, completely outclassing the enemy, di- 
rected against them the heaviest artillery-fire 
known in warfare. 

122 



THE MAN BEHIND THE GUNS 

The gun-makers of every country at war 
realize that probably the greatest problem 
in building modern guns is that of overcom- 
ing the recoil. Until recently the kick of a 
gun was considered a necessary evil, and no 
effort was made to control it. A cannon, 
on being discharged, would run back several 
feet, and the aim would be completely lost. 
A crew was then forced to labor to bring it 
again into position, and the difficult work of 
sighting it had to begin all over again. The 
time lost between shots was, of course, price- 
less ; but since both sides worked at the same 
disadvantage, it was accepted as a necessary 
evil. 

With the present system of non-recoil em- 
ployed, a battery of field- or even siege-guns 
can be made to fire from twenty to twenty- 
five shots per minute. The problem has been 
solved in different ways in the several em- 
battled countries, but the construction is 
essentially the same. The carriage of the 
gun remains fixed, and the gun recoils on this 
carriage and returns to its original position. 
The force of the recoil is enormous, but this 
is taken up by a highly ingenious system of 
125 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

hydraulic cylinders, counter-weights, and 
counter-recoil springs. 

It is difficult for the lay mind to realize 
the power of such guns. In the case of a 
twelve-inch gun the counter-weight consists 
of 140,000 pounds of lead. The recoil-cyl- 
inders are filled with oil, which has been 
found best for taking up the stupendous 
shock of the discharges. The guns are re- 
turned to their carriages by releasing the 
great counter-weights, thus forcing the 
weight of the gun forward to its firing posi- 
tion. 

In no other branch of engineering, it is 
safe to say, may be found mechanism at once 
so powerful in its execution and so delicate 
in design. One type of our seacoast guns 
measures fourteen inches in caliber. This 
measurement means little to the average 
mind, although our respect for the gun will 
rise when we learn that it fires a projectile 
weighing 1660 pounds, which, in turn, car- 
ries a bursting charge of eighty-five pounds 
of high explosive. 

The largest gun in our fortifications is of 
sixteen-inch caliber; it is mounted on a dis- 
126 



THE MAN BEHIND THE GUNS 

appearing gun-carriage. The almost irre- 
sistible force of this gun is cleverly utilized 
to operate much delicate, but powerful, ma- 
chinery to bring it back into position in the 
shortest possible time. 

This gun-projectile weights 2400 pounds, 
— a weight equal to that of a large wagon or 
automobile filled with passengers. Its speed 
on leaving the gun, or its muzzle-velocity, is 
27CXD feet, — rather more than half a mile per 
second. The energy exerted by such a dis- 
charge is equal to 121,430 foot tons. This 
power will raise a projectile weighing more 
than a ton to a height of eight and a half 
miles, an altitude equal to that of several of 
the highest mountains in the world. 

The extrerne range of such a gun is 
twenty-seven and one third miles. To vis- 
ualize this distance, describe a circle of 
twenty-seven miles from some familiar point. 
Incredible as it may seem, every point within 
this imaginary boundary would be within 
range of this gun. 

Great engineering skill is displayed in de- 
signing guns with an extremely high-angle 
fire. [The shells from such guns climb to 
127 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

great heights, and after describing a grace- 
ful parabola, drop with wonderful accuracy 
upon the target. In defensive work along 
our seacoasts such batteries are, of course, 
likely to be more effective than more power- 
ful guns of longer range. The idea is to 
have the shot strike vertically, or as nearly 
so as possible, upon the deck of a ship. 
Since such shots are more likely to cause in- 
ternal explosions than is direct fire. The 
mortars used in seacoast forts usually con- 
sist of batteries of four guns, which are fired 
electrically. Four shots may thus be fired 
simultaneously, or two of the mortars may be 
set off singly by touching a button. The 
man behind the gun must be a highly tech- 
nical engineer, with all his forces, trained by 
long schooling, constantly on the alert. 

The complete field-gun consists of two 
parts : the gun, and its limber or caisson, the 
latter carrying the ammunition. In action 
the two parts stand side by side. The 
method of serving field-guns has been made 
familiar to the most peaceful citizen through 
the medium of the motion-picture. Every 
one has seen the guns brought forward, — 
128 



THE MAN BEHIND THE GUNS 

often with hysterical speed, — loaded, sighted, 
and discharged, while courage, daring, or 
fear are "registered" by the hard-working 
actors. 

The patron of the ''movies" need scarcely 
be told that modern field-guns do not recoil 
with each shot and have to be hauled back 
into position.. The gun is aimed by means of 
a telescopic sight. The carriage is fixed in 
position by means of a spade, at the end of 
its tail, dug into the ground. The shell is in- 
serted in the open breech, which is then 
closed and locked. The gunner pulls a lan- 
yard, there is a flash from the muzzle, and 
the gun springs backward. By beating on 
a drumlike instrument somewhere back of 
the screen the illusion is made complete. 

The action is probably too quick to be 
caught by the eye ; but in this fraction of time 
the gun compresses a coiled spring, while the 
main force of the kick is taken up by a cylin- 
der filled with oil and water. A moment la- 
ter the spring forces the gun back, sliding it 
on its fixed carriage, or base, to its original 
positibn, where it may be sighted and fired 
without loss of time. 

129 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

There is important economy of time in 
using modern cartridges. The metallic 
cases are slipped into position in a flash, the 
breech-block being operated by a single ac- 
tion. An ingenious device throws out the 
empty cartridge-case. Some cartridges are 
placed beside the breech in their original 
package, and are pushed into position with- 
out being touched by the hand, thus keeping 
them free from dirt or grease. Compare 
this method with the violent exertion of 
swabbing out the old-fashioned breechload- 
ers and ramming home the shots, the charge 
of powder, and the bullets. Our gunners 
can fire fifteen shots to a minute with these 
guns, while in France constant practice en- 
ables a gun-crew to fire twenty times a mia- 
ute. 

The machine-gun, which, by the way, must 
not be confused with revolvers or magazine- 
rifles, was used in our Civil War in more 
than a score of different forms. Little prog- 
ress was made in developing it, however, un- 
til about 1870, on the appearance of the new 
torpedo-boats. The rapid movement of the 
new craft eluded the guns of that period, 
130 



THE MAN BEHIND THE GUNS 

and the ordnance engineers set to work to 
invent some new gun to overcome this advan- 
tage. 

The early machine-guns had from six to 
ten bores, which revolved around a central 
shaft. Each shot had to be fired by hand, 
the gun being operated by turning a crank. 
It was at best a cumbrous method. Al- 
though the idea of utilizing the recoil of the 
shots to fire a gun was old, it was not suc- 
cessfully utilized until the appearance of the 
Maxim gun. 

The machine-gun has had a wonderful de- 
velopment in the last few years. The older 
forms of rapid-fire gun have been completely 
outclassed. The gas-operating type of gun 
made and used in the United States appears 
almost magical" to the layman, as, indeed, it 
would have appeared to the trained soldiers 
of another generation. It is an air-cooled 
gun, which is operated automatically by the 
escape of gas after each explosion. The gas 
escapes through a port a short distance from 
the muzzle and sets in motion the compli- 
cated machinery that operates the gun. As 
long as one holds back the trigger, the gun 
131 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

discharges at the rate of from 450 to 500 
shots per minute. A small battery of such 
guns fires as many shots as a regiment of 
men. 

The cartridges — hundreds of them — are 
fastened to a woven canvas belt, which is 
fed into the gun with bewildering speed. 
When the gas,, after each explosion, passes 
through the port, it acts on a piston which 
moves a lever, and the sharp impulse of the 
gas is instantly transmitted to a train of lev- 
er-springs and feed-wheels, all working in 
amazing harmony. As each cartridge comes 
into position, it is plucked out of the belt, 
delivered to a carrier, raised into position, 
and the cartridge-chamber is closed, ready 
for firing. On being discharged, the cart- 
ridge is thrown out and a new one takes its 
place. 

Imagine the delicacy and precision of the 
mechanism which performs this complicated 
operation almost ten times in a second and 
keeps up sustained action indefinitely. By 
way of comparison, it is interesting to recall 
that the first guns used in warfare, which 
were adaptions of the ancient crossbow and 
132 



THE MAN BEHIND THE GUNS 

were ''loaded" by winding-up devices, re- 
quired about half an hour to wind up or load. 
Battles were fought in which only seven 
rounds of shots were exchanged. 

A few years ago a gun of any size without 
some recoil would have seemed impossible. 
With the development of the aeroplane the 
makers of ordnance busied themselves to 
design a weapon that could be discharged 
aloft. The balance of an aeroplane is, of 
course, so delicate that the recoil of an ordi- 
nary gun, even a small one, might mean a 
fatal plunge. For some time the problem 
presented to the gun-makers proved baf- 
fling, but the advantage of directing artil- 
lery-fire from the air is so great that the en- 
gineers of ordnance returned again and 
again to the task. Until a good non-recoil 
gun was invented, a machine-rifle was the 
largest piece of ordnance an air man dared 
carry aloft. 

In the first type of non-recoil gun the 
weapon was fired to the rear. When dis- 
charged in the air, the gun fell and was lost, 
so far 'as that particular flight was con- 
cerned. This proved an expensive method 
133 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

of aerial attack. The present non-recoil 
type of gun is a marvel of ingenuity and 
workmanship. In a word, it consists of two 
guns, firing two projectiles, which exactly 
balance each other. The recoil of one gun 
cancels that of the other, so that the delicate 
balance of the aeroplane is undisturbed. 
With this invention, the aeroplane suddenly 
became an efficient weapon of attack. 

This aero-gun is, in reality, a double-bar- 
relled or, more accurately, a double-length 
gun. Placed end to end, ready for firing, 
it appears to be a very long, single-barrelled 
gun. The two guns have the same bore, so 
that when discharged breech to breech, the 
force of the recoil exactly balances. Two 
projectiles are fired in opposite directions. 
A steel shell leaves the forward barrel, speed- 
ing toward its target, while the second pro- 
jectile speeds toward the rear. A man di- 
rectly behind the gun would occupy a dan- 
gerous position. 

The cartridge fired from the front barrel 
is of the conventional form used in ordinary 
guns. The rear barrel fires a charge of wad- 
ding which breaks up, losing its initial veloc- 
134 



THE MAN BEHIND THE GUNS 

ity in a few feet. By the time the wadding 
has fallen to the ground it becomes entirely 
harmless, and even if it should chance to hit 
some one, no injury would result. This 
highly ingenious form makes it possible to 
build guns firing two-, six-, or twelve-pound 
cartridges, weighing from 60 to 210 pounds. 
The muzzle-velocity of these shots is in ex- 
cess of 1000 foot seconds. The aeroplane 
can thus carry aloft a battery of cannon 
which, as regards bore and efficiency, enor- 
mously increases their deadliness. 

One of the most interesting forms of mod- 
ern ordnance is the anti-aircraft gun that 
has appeared in very recent times. An 
aeroplane in flight naturally is an extremely 
difficult target to hit. It moves at a rate of 
100 miles or more an hour, and often at an 
altitude of one or more miles. Its course 
may be a rapid zig-zag, which greatly adds 
to the problems of the gunner. The extreme 
range of these anti-aircraft guns is about 
21,000 feet, or about four miles. When fir- 
ing directly upward, the shot requires about 
twenty-two seconds to reach its destination. 
The gunner must therefore calculate the 
135 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

speed of the aeroplane and aim his gun in 
advance of it in such a way that it will in- 
tercept its course almost half a minute after 
the gun is fired. Such guns obviously fire 
shrapnel. 

Air defense remains one of the unsolved 
problems of the war. The anti-aircraft 
guns are marvels of ingenuity, but the prob- 
lem they must face is extremely difficult. 
Much progress has been made, and the guns 
are to-day so effective that the Zeppelin has 
been practically driven from the skies. By 
night such work is greatly complicated. 
The most powerful searchlights can do little 
to pick out aircraft several miles high. The 
discharge of the batteries drowns the sound 
of the aeroplane's propellers. Such guns, 
of course, can be readily aimed at any angle 
and, despite their size and weight, are 
extremely mobile. The guns are often 
mounted on motor-trucks that may be rushed 
from point to point at top speed. 

The aeroplanes that raid London as a rule 

reach England somewhere above the mouth 

of the Thames and follow the line of that 

river. When the approach of a hostile fleet 

136 



THE MAN BEHIND THE GUNS 

is discovered, a barrage is put up at the 
mouth of the Thames. This usually proves 
very effective, and it is believed that one half 
the attacking fleet is often brought down at 
this point. In using anti-aircraft guns 
above any city, there is danger, of course, 
that the shrapnel will fall back, and, gaining 
immense momentum in dropping several 
miles, inflict damage upon friends. It is 
commonly said that everything that goes up 
is Allied, while everything that comes down 
is Boche. 

A complete revolution in artillery methods 
may follow the invention of guns of such ex- 
treme range as are now being employed by 
the Germans in the fourth year of the Great 
War. In the spring of 191 8 the world was 
startled by the announcement that shells dis- 
charged from German guns had reached 
Paris, inflicting loss of life. The first re- 
ports were discredited, so impossible did 
such a bombardment appear. It was esti- 
mated that such shells must travel for more 
than seventy miles, or nearly four times as 
far as 'the most powerful guns heretofore 
used. The continued long-range bombard- 

n7. 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

ment of Paris, with considerable loss of life, 
soon convinced a sceptical world, however, 
that a seventy- or perhaps eighty-mile gun 
was in operation. 

Although the secret of these guns has been 
closely guarded, it is known that their bar- 
rels are about sixty feet in length. The 
shells fired measure eight and one quarter 
inches in diameter. The empty shell weighs 
330 pounds, and the charge has the same 
weight. The projectile rises to a height of 
18.6 miles and then descends from the sky, 
gaining velocity as it falls. By climbing to 
this height the shell, of course, reaches rare- 
fied air. This is said to simplify the prob- 
lem of throwing it this immense distance. 
It is estimated that the shell requires more 
than three minutes to reach its target. 

The Lewis gun depends for its marvelous 
speed in firing upon the tension of springs 
acted upon by the force of exploding gas. 
Although weighing only twenty-one pounds, 
it will fire from 400 to 700 shots per minute. 
Its action is entirely automatic. The car- 
tridges are arranged in a spiral shell that 
holds fifty rounds. This shell can be re- 
138 



THE MAN BEHIND THE GUNS 

placed in two seconds. The gun is cooled 
by means of a long tube of aluminum, along 
which air is drawn. 

Doubtless the most mobile batteries in 
service are the motor-cycle machine-guns. 
The English army alone has thirty thousand 
machine-guns mounted on motor-cycles. 
Over any passable road these motors can 
cover thirty or forty miles an hour, or better, 
and therefore prove indispensable in support- 
ing infantry. The cyclists are daring riders, 
and hundreds of such guns may be brought 
into position with bewildering speed. A 
company is often rushed forward to hold a 
position until reinforcements arrive. The 
machine-guns may be fired from the motor- 
cycle by using a rigid tripod. Distance is 
covered so quickly by the motor-cycles that 
repair-shops are usually placed well in the 
rear. 

The most cornpletely equipped motor-bat" 
tery in the service to-day is said to be the 
Ninth Heavy Field Artillery of the United 
States Army. Motor-tractors of many 
forms' have completely superseded the horse- 
drawn units. The colonel of a regiment 
139 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

travels about the field in a light automobile, 
thus keeping in touch with widely separated 
units with the least possible delay. Officers 
travel rapidly in motor-cycles equipped with 
*'bathtub" side-cars. A complete equipment 
of motor-trucks, driven by all four wheels, 
are used to rush up ammunition and supplies 
of every kind. The heavy guns are drawn 
by "caterpillar" tractors, which trundle 
slowly but surely over ground that would be 
impossible for horses. The tractor part of 
a regiment's equipment includes forty-five 
machines. One of the great advantages of 
these tractors is that much heavier guns may 
be drawn into action than is possible by the 
use of horses. Such equipment replaces at 
least one thousand horses that would other- 
wise be required for each regiment. 

The work of arming millions of men with 
rifles is one of the main engineering prob- 
lems of war. Several rifles are turned out, 
complete, for every man in the ranks. In all 
these millions of weapons the greatest accur- 
acy of every part must be assured, and the 
fabrication of the parts requires a high de- 
gree of technical skill. The barrel is the 
140 



THE MAN BEHIND THE GUNS 

most difficult problem. At present the ma- 
terial most favored is smokeless barrel-steel, 
which is found to resist the corrosive action 
of the gases set free by the explosion. 

The methods of manufacture vary consid- 
erably. A common method is to cut a rod of 
uniform diameter, and then upset one end 
and thicken it to form the breach. Some 
barrels are rolled by special machinery, in or- 
der to get the proper taper. The barrels are 
next roughly straightened. The boring is 
done by rotating the barrel at high speed, 
while the metal is cooled and lubricated by 
a stream of oil, after which the bore is 
smoothed. It is so vital that the bore be ab- 
solutely straight that the work must be done 
by experts, with the greatest precautions. 
The barrel is ground on a grindstone, and 
then is repeatedly tested with a bullet. The 
rifling comes next, when the bore is cut with 
the grooves that give the bullet its rotary 
motion on being discharged. The rifle is 
then "browned," as it is termed, by a chemi- 
cal bath, although its color, as all the world 
knows,' is really a dark blue. 

Before leaving the factory every rifle is 
143 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

subjected to a high-powder test. A heavy 
leaden plug is driven into the muzzle, and a 
charge equal to two or three times any nor- 
mal charge is exploded. Such a rifle may be 
discha^ed 250,000 times without losing its 
accuracy. 

The general public has no conception of 
the difficulties that face the engineers of the 
ordnance department in constructing vast 
supplies of guns and ammunition. It has 
been necessary to suppl}^ our troops with 
100,000 different items, ranging from the 
tiny firing-pin of their rifles to the complete 
16-inch gun with its emplacement. One of 
the great guns mounted on a modern disap- 
pearing-carriage consists of 7,990 parts, not 
including the sights and accessories. Even 
a 3-inch gun-battery requires 3,876 different 
tools, accessories, and supplies. For every 
gun in use there must of course be a reserve 
supply of all parts. Since hundreds of thou- 
sands of such guns must be supplied in "rush 
time," new engineering problems must be 
solved in quantitative production. 

It has been necessary to build new plants 
on an unprecedented scale, finance them, and 
144 



THE MAN BEHIND THE GUNS 

assure an enormous production in the brief- 
est possible time. In times of peace the 
Government directed eleven small arsenals. 
Within a few months it directed the output 
of 14,000 private manufacturing establish- 
ments. A great army of workers is em- 
ployed to turn out shells of all calibers, rifles, 
ammunition, grenades, and bombs. The 
housing of these supplies alone presents a 
serious problem, since more than 23,00,000 
square feet of storage-space will be needed 
for such supplies. An efficient system of 
handling supplies has been worked out by 
army engineers, and this has necessitated 
the building of hundreds of miles of special 
railroads. More than 10,000 carloads of 
explosives, for instance, are handled every 
month. 

In the first year of our participation in the 
Great War the Army Ordnance Department 
increased its staff from ninety-seven to over 
5,000 officers, a large proportion of whom 
are highly skilled engineers. Its expendi- 
tures during our first twelve months in the 
conflict aggregated $4,756,500,000. The 
output of rifles was increased to 45,000 a 
145 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

week, and during the past year 1,400,000 
guns were supplied. The delivery of ma- 
chine-guns was increased from 20,000 to 
225,000 a year, while the output of field-guns 
of all types was jumped from 1,500 to 15,000 
a year. 



146 



CHAPTER VIII 

MODERN SHELLS AND ARMOR 

THE' old-fashioned, cast-iron cannon- 
balls, which we see piled in neat pyra- 
mids in public parks, are as obsolete as the 
guns that used to fire them. They have been 
replaced by a complicated contrivance of steel 
some thousands of times more effective than 
the old missiles. The deadliness of the shell 
is immensely increased by a secondary 
charge of bullets, — several hundred of them, 
— which are scattered by a second explosion, 
much the same as a rocket explodes after a 
long flight. The base of the shell carries a 
charge of powder and several hundred bul- 
lets, the interstices being filled with a smoke- 
producing mixture. A time-fuse is ar- 
ranged at the nose of the shell, which may be 
set with reference to the range and the time 
of flight, so that the powder will explode 
when the shell nears its target, usually when 
147 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

above a body of troops. The time-fuse must 
be constructed with mathematical accuracy, 
— in order to measure the time in minute 
fractions of a second. 

The fuse-device in a modern shrapnel shell 
and in a high-explosive shell contains mar- 
velously delicate mechanism. There are 
shearing-wires, centrifugal bolts, safety- 
pins, needles, and hammers adjusted with 
the utmost delicacy. Although these shells 
are capable of destroying every object in 
their vicinity, they are perfectly harmless 
until the safety-pins are removed, when their 
complex mechanism is permitted to function. 
The safety-pins resemble the familiar domes- 
tic articles only in name. A generation ago 
the soldiers often cast their own bullets and 
cannon-balls by melting lead and pouring it 
into crude molds. To-day a scientific metal- 
lurgist is required to prepare the materials. 
Some knowledge of chemistry is required, 
even to read the formulas that describe their 
composition. Every detail of the work is 
highly specialized. 

The shells must, besides, have just the 
right hardness, for if they are too brittle, 
148 



MODERN SHELLS AND ARMOR 

they may be shattered in the gun, and if too 
soft, they will bulge and widen before leav- 
ing the barrel. The most minute detail is of 
vital importance, for the period of explosion 
must be brought within absolute control. 
The balls in such a shell are discharged from 
their case with an additioncCi velocity of from 
250 to 320 feet per second. These guns 
have a range of several miles, and so delicate 
and accurate is this mechanism that the point 
at which they will explode may be determined 
within a few feet. 

Among the most complicated of these mis- 
siles are the aerial bombs dropped from air- 
craft. It might be supposed that any con- 
tainer loaded with an explosive would prove 
sufficiently deadly when dropped from an 
altitude of two or three miles, — but engineers 
have succeeded in greatly increasing its dead- 
liness. 

The cross-section of such a bomb appears 
hopelessly complicated to the layman. The 
mechanism is so arranged that a drop of fifty 
feet starts its extremely complex machinery. 
A small propeller at the end of the bomb is 
spun by the resistance of the air, and this sets 
149 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

the involved machinery going. The aviator, 
having calculated his altitude, the speed of 
his aircraft, and the resistance of the wind, 
and having solved a rather difficult equation, 
determines how long his missile will take to 
reach its target. The time-fuse in the nose 
of the torpedo is set accordingly, then re- 
leased. In the fraction of time taken for 
the heavy bomb to plunge down to the earth 
the machinery functions with scientific pre- 
cision. A plunger is released, which brings 
the chemicals together, a primer is fired, and 
at a prearranged distance from the earth the 
bomb explodes. Before these time-mechan- 
isms were employed a great deal of energy 
was lost, since the bomb only exploded on 
striking its target, and was likely to plunge 
deep into the earth, where it could do com- 
paratively little damage. 

New figures of speech must be found to 
describe the unprecedented volume of sound 
in modern cannonading. Cannons no longer 
"thunder." Never before have so many 
guns of great caliber been massed together 
or served so continuously. Observers, both 
on the Allied side and the German, have re- 
150 



MODERN SHELLS AND ARMOR 

marked the peculiarly impressive roll that 
follows the discharge of a high-powered gun. 
This sound is heard to best advantage in rug- 
ged land of irregular contour, well-wooded 
and set with many buildings. The report of 
the cannon is followed by a majestic, echoing 
roll, which has been described as like a great 
brass orchestra, with a more distinctly musi- 
cal note 'than thunder. The report is fre- 
quently mistaken for the actual roar of the 
shell, while in reality it is produced by the 
combined echoes from thousands of recesses 
and inequalities in the earth over which the 
shell passes. 

One of the curiosities of the war is the 
tricks of acoustics played on the gunners 
and the enemy in artillery duels. It is a 
well-known law of acoustics that intensity 
of sound grows less in proportion to the 
square of the distance. Double the distance, 
and the sound has but one fourth its original 
volume. We are likely to apply this rule in- 
stinctively when locating or comparing any 
sound. 

To the bewilderment of the soldiers at the 
front, the enemy's guns often sound much 
151 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

louder than their own batteries. Men well 
behind their own cannon have often been 
alarmed to hear the attacking guns sound 
much more formidable than their own. The 
evidence of their senses would seem to tell 
them that the enemy's battery was the more 
powerful. 

The explanation is simple. Sound is con- 
centrated in the direction of artillery fire. 
The reports of these great batteries, heard 
from the rear, merge into a great, dull roar 
of incredible volume. The reports from the 
guns aimed directly at one have a sharp, 
staccato note, although the guns may be of 
similar type. It is this sharp, staccato note 
that has been frequently compared to the 
tattoo of a giant drum. During the bom- 
bardment on an unprecedented scale of the 
massed Allied artillery on the Somme, the 
Germans described this curious phenomenon 
as trommel feuer, or drum-fire, and the 
phrase has come into general usage. 

The destructive power of the great guns 
has been carefully measured. The seven- 
teen-inch howitzers, which hurl shells filled 
with explosives weighing 2800 pounds a dis- 
152 



MODERN SHELLS AND ARMOR 

tance of twenty-four miles, are practically 
irresistible. No structure nor fortification 
has yet been devised that can withstand such 
a blow. One of these shells has penetrated a 
barrier of twenty-six inches of steel armor, 
backed by twenty feet of solid oak timber, 
and then a thickness of twenty-one feet of 
granite and concrete masonry, making a total 
of forty-three feet of the hardest materials 
that can be assembled. 

As the weapons of warfare have become 
more deadly of late, several forms of armor, 
long ago discarded, have returned. A sol- 
dier of the Middle Ages, who had never 
heard of gunpowder or firearms, would find 
the trenches, with their steel-helmeted sol- 
diers, a familiar sight. The gas-mask bears 
a faraway resemblance to the visors that pro- 
tected the knights of old. Within a few 
years the appearance of the fighting man has 
been transformed, and if the war should 
continue and newer and more deadly missiles 
be invented, modern armor may assume un- 
expected forms. 

The soldiers of Rome and Greece wore no 
armor, except the shields they carried to 
153 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

ward off the blows of spears. As side-arms 
and the lower-power projectile came into 
use, the complicated armor of the Middle 
Ages gradually developed. To ward off at- 
tacks of crossbows or javelins, the soldiers 
first wore thick garments of skins and furs, 
and then came the helmet and cuirass. 

The period of armor reached its complete 
development by the middle of the fourteenth 
century. The soldiers then fought under a 
heavy weight of metal, so that often it was 
necessary for a knight to be accompanied by 
a follower to assist him to carry his fighting 
equipment. The legs and arms of the 
mounted men were protected by steel plates, 
the hands by articulated gauntlets, and the 
feet by iron shoes. It was impossible for 
men on foot to carry such armor, and they 
were less well-protected. They wore hel- 
mets, shoulder-pieces of metal, shields, arm- 
and thigh-pieces, a protective piece for the 
knees, and short coats of mail. 

The use of gunpowder quickly changed 

the appearance of fighting men. In a period 

of ten years, as firearms grew more effective, 

most of the protective armor disappeared. 

154 




-s 



< 



MODERN SHELLS AND ARMOR 

The saving in weight of equipment that 
men had to carry into battle was, of course, 
an enormous gain. Warfare was revolu- 
tionized. Instead of converting each man 
into a movable fort, as it were, every effort 
was now made to gain individual invisibility, 
and the familiar service-uniform next ap- 
peared. ' 

To-day, with steel helmets, gas-masks, and 
spectacles, we are, in a measure, returning 
to the ancient methods of protection. The 
first form of this modern protective headgear 
in the present war consisted of metal caps 
worn under the kepi, which assured ordi- 
nary protective covering. It was found, 
however, that this headpiece caused head- 
aches and other discomforts, and its conven- 
ient form often tempted the soldiers to use 
it as a cup or a cooking-utensil. The pres- 
ent form of helmet has gradually evolved. 
It is designed along scientific lines, so that a 
missile striking it, even at an angle of fifty 
degrees, will glance off. 

The steel helmets worn by our soldiers in 
France afford a unique problem in engi- 
neering. Four fifths of all the casualties in 
^57 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

modern warfare are head wounds. The 
protection of the soldiers' heads, therefore, 
becomes a matter of supreme importance. 
Profiting by the experience of the British, 
French, and Germans in designing these steel 
protections, American engineers have im- 
proved upon earlier designs. The helmet 
worn by American soldiers follows the gen- 
eral lines of the British type of inverted 
''soup-plate," rather than the French 
"casque" or the German "coal-scuttle." 
Penetration tests show that no helmet is 
more efficient than that of the American type. 
Every helmet issued to the American sol- 
dier has passed a severe test and is absolutely 
free from cracks or flaws. To turn out this 
complicated headgear by the million, using 
only the highest grade of materials, is a big 
order ; but the great manufacturing resources 
of the United States have proved equal to the 
work of quantitative production. Steel hel- 
mets had never before been made in the 
United States; but new machinery was de- 
signed, and the supply has never fallen be- 
hind the demand. The helmets are made by 
stamping and punching sheets of steel, so 
158 



MODERN SHELLS AND ARMOR 

that thousands may be turned out in a day, 
with great saving of labor. Each steel sheet 
is one foot square and one s^ixth of an inch 
thick. The pieces sheared off and other 
wastage are returned to the Government, so 
that nothing is lost. 

Careful tests are first made of each sheet, 
to determine if it is free from flaws. The 
lives of thousands of men depend upon the 
thoroughness of these tests. Each sheet is 
then placed between "male" and "female" 
dies, and under enormous pressure it is 
forced into the familiar shape. The process 
is accompanied by a piercing shriek from the 
steel. ,The next machine cuts away the edge, 
or brim, with a single blow. An electric 
welding apparatus is used to join the parts 
and smooth the rim. 

It is important that the steel be colored, 
so that it will not reflect the light and thus 
make a conspicuous target for the enemy. 
The French color their helmets blue, while 
the British sprinkle sand over theirs. The 
American helmets are treated with a secret 
preparation that kills reflection and at the 
same time is a poor conductor of heat. Our 
159 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

helmets are finished by inserting a special 
lining that keeps the head from touching the 
steel sides and absorbs the shock of all im- 
pacts. The American helmet, complete, 
weighs less than two pounds. 

Since the adoption of these helmets the 
number of cranial wounds has considerably 
increased, but a large proportion of such 
wounds are curable. Before a helmet was 
worn, fewer men were treated for cranial 
wounds, for the simple reason that wounds 
of this nature were usually fatal. The latest 
form of helmet that has been found in cap- 
tured German trenches is designed to resist 
even direct rifle-fire. It is made of Krupp 
steel one fourth of an inch thick, which 
makes the head-piece too heavy to be carried 
about. These helmets have only been picked 
up in first-line German trenches, and it is 
supposed that they are only worn when the 
men are on duty, to protect them against 
snipers. 

Many engineers in America and Europe 
believe it possible to construct a bullet-proof 
shield or cuirass sufficiently light and port- 
able to be made part of the modern soldier's 
i6o 



MODERN SHELLS AND ARMOR 

equipment. Several years ago it was 
thought that the problem had been solved by 
a German inventor who devised a shield the 
height of a man, consisting of four or six 
hinged parts that could be rolled up and car- 
ried about with ease. It was found to suc- 
cessfully resist bullets fired only twenty- 
three feet away. Before any general use 
could be made of the invention the penetrat- 
ing power of bullets was increased, and the 
shield proved useless, except to turn aside 
glancing blows or pieces of shrapnel. 

A later plan has been to make the cuirass 
of steel covered with special padding of cot- 
ton, over which, in turn, is placed thin metal 
bands. A flexible cuirass has been made of 
a series of rnetal spheres held together by 
hooks and eyes. Still another plan is to build 
up a resisting fabric by means of a series of 
hollow metal balls. A French inventor has 
devised an elastic cushion, a combination of 
springs and sockets filled with rubber. The 
theory of these cushion-formations is that 
the bullet will embed itself without penetrat- 
ing, the force of the impact being taken up 
before the missile passes through the fabric. 
i6i 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

Many designs have been suggested for ap- 
plying such protection. It is urged by some 
that it be used exactly as were the metal 
plates in early armor, or that portable buc- 
klers or shields be fastened by leather brace- 
lets to the left arm of the soldier and used 
in an advance as a shield. 

Many military authorities also believe that 
great advantage may be gained by utilizing 
the knapsack carried by soldiers, his en- 
trenching tools, and even his clothes for de- 
fensive purposes. Many forms of knap- 
sacks have been designed to resist bullets 
and shrapnel. When fully loaded they of- 
fer considerable resistance. By placing 
them upright, a miniature breastwork is 
formed that protects the soldier from ordi- 
nary rifle-fire. Scientific tests have been 
made with various forms of knapsacks by 
firing at them from different ranges. It was 
found that two knapsacks placed together 
would resist forty per cent, of all balls fired 
at them from a range of eight hundred 
paces. The metal tools used by the infan- 
try, and especially by the engineering regi- 
ments, are also used with good effect. A 
162 



MODERN SHELLS AND ARMOR 

trench-spade driven into the ground and 
backed with a few shovels of earth often 
proves surprisingly effective. The ingenu- 
ity of the engineers now fighting at the front 
is expected to devise many new forms of pro- 
tection. 



163 



CHAPTER IX 

AMERICAN VERSATILITY 

THE great industrial army recruited in 
America will comprise some forty regi- 
ments, elaborately equipped for service in 
France. Within a year the engineering 
forces of our army have been increased 1660 
per cent. Meanwhile the purchasing power 
of the Engineer Corps has been raised 2250 
per cent. During the first three months of 
mobilization the General Engineering De- 
pot spent $175,000,000, and during the fiscal 
year the total was about $375,000,000. The 
cost of the Panama Canal, which heretofore 
was the high-water mark for all engineering 
expenditures, seems trifling by comparison. 
This immense budget has made possible the 
designing, specification, purchase, gathering 
into central depots, and forwarding of all en- 
gineering materials and equipment supplied 
164 



I<*t ,;*MSt:Ai«IWaKS. 




AMERICAN VERSATILITY 

our army, as well as all engineering opera- 
tions in the field. 

The names of the regiments of engineers 
already recruited will give some idea of the 
energy and versatility of these forces. The 
classification is as follows : 

Water-Supply Mining 

Highway Quarrying 

Light railroading General Construction 

Standard-gage Rail- Engineers' Supplies 

roading Surveying 

Gas and Flame Army and Pontoon 
Forestry Post 

When America entered the war France 
designated certain seaports for the exclusive 
use of the ships landing our armies and sup- 
plies. Our engineers found these were tidal 
ports, and special docks had to be built to ac- 
commodate the unprecedented demands of 
our fleet. The work was handed over to the 
engineers, w^ho quickly prepared complete 
plans for building elaborate docking facili- 
ties, 

These docks were fabricated in America 
167 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

and sent to France to be placed in position. 
Every detail of their construction was pre- 
pared on this side of the Atlantic, including 
the piles for the docks, the flooring, and 
houses for the protection of men and provi- 
sions. An immense amount of machinery 
for handling heavy weights, including many 
powerful cranes, was designed to meet the 
peculiar demands of this work. With the 
aid of these American-built docks and ma- 
chinery, the enormous task of disembarking 
an army of hundreds of thousands of men 
has been carried on without mishap. 

A favorable impression has been made 
in France by the system of repair-shops 
built and operated by American engineers. 
The steel for many buildings was prepared 
in the United States in an incredibly short 
time, and put together in France with a speed 
that suggests the erection of Aladdin's pal- 
ace. An order was placed in America, for 
instance, for 4000 steel hangars, measuring 
68 by 165 feet, each to house four aeroplanes. 
This order was executed in less than sixty 
days. The field repair-shops, incidentally, 
168 



AMERICAN VERSATILITY 

are usually placed as near as possible to the 
front to save time in transporting broken ma- 
chinery. They are never built close to- 
gether, but at intervals of a half-mile or 
more, so as to offer an inconspicuous target. 

Equipped with American machinery and 
manned by skilled workmen, these shops are 
prepared to mend every conceivable form of 
fighting-machine. The guns, large and 
small, require constant attention. Should 
a great gun get out of order, every moment 
of delay in bringing it into action may be 
priceless. Again, the tens of thousands of 
automobiles behind the front require con- 
stant repairs. The life of some of the more 
delicate aero-motors proves to be only about 
forty hours at the front, after which they 
must be reground. 

In recruiting these engineering regiments 
every conceivable service seems to have been 
anticipated. The engineering regiments in- 
clude a number of expert workers on bicy- 
cles. From the tons of litter picked up on 
the battle-fields, the broken parts of bicycles 
are carefully sorted out and put aside. 
169 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

Many of the wheels used have been stand- 
ardized, which simpHfies the work. The 
wrecks of wheels that seem beyond hope are 
combined in order that nothing shall be 
wasted. Companies of motor-cyclists use 
up their wheels very quickly, and by keeping 
the workers busy, thousands of wheels are 
reclaimed. There are, besides, many hos- 
pitals for broken rifles, where injured weap- 
ons are repaired or parts of guns are stored 
for future use. The saving that results 
from this scientific economy amounts to mil- 
lions of dollars a year. 

As might be expected, the electrical indus- 
tries of America are well represented in the 
engineering regiments. Several of the larg- 
est manufacturing plants have sent their of- 
ficials, who are well-known engineers, while 
hundreds of experienced workers in every 
branch of constructive work have volun- 
teered. These American units are prepared 
to take over bodily every imaginable electri- 
cal enterprise, install a new system or oper- 
ate an old one, without an hour's delay. So 
many American inventions are in common 
use abroad, and the French have made such 
170 



AMERICAN versatility; 

general use of our electrical machinery, that 
American electricians report that they find 
themselves much at home in the work. 

An immense amount of electrical work 
must be carried on at the front and imme- 
diately behind it. Great distributing sys- 
tems for operating electric-lights and sup- 
plying power have been established and op- 
erated in the war zone. A large and uni- 
form supply of current must be provided for 
headquarters, cantonments, artillery repair- 
shops, and hospitals, as well as for the air 
service and the reconstruction bases. If, 
through any carelessness or inefficiency, the 
power should be cut off for a single hour, 
the loss would prove serious. Again, a well- 
directed shot may at any moment of the day 
or night destroy conduits vital to the ma- 
chinery, and repairs must be made, however 
difficult the conditions, with the greatest ex- 
pedition. The linesmen, as well as the en- 
gineers, in the electrical stations near the 
front frequently perform highly technical 
work while under fire. 

The ingenuity of our engineers has proved 
valuable in the conservation of electrical 
171 



iTHE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

power in many cities and towns in France. 
The electrical industry has often been de- 
moralized, especially in cities near the front. 
Thousands of Frenchmen have had to go to 
the trenches, and production has conse- 
quently suffered. American engineers have 
accomplished marvels in meeting this power- 
famine. In some localities the electrical 
system has been completely reorganized. 
Important plants have been combined, and 
all unnecessary waste has been eliminated. 

The allotment of power to street-cars and 
for street-lights has been systematically re- 
duced, iti order that manufacturing indus- 
tries essential to the war might not suffer. 
In some sections a census has been taken of 
all the electrical machinery, so that every 
part may be utilized. The new power-plants 
constructed and the system installed by intro- 
ducing the latest American methods will 
prove of great permanent value to France. 

The engineers of the Signal Corps often 
have to face great peril. Telephone com- 
munication is so vital a matter at the front 
that communicating lines of wire must be 
laid at any cost. When an advance is pre- 
172 



AMERICAN VERSATILITY 

pared, the telephone linesmen, with their 
material in hand, are held in readiness. 
They carry an ample supply of heavily in- 
sulated copper telephone-wire, — for the lines 
are often run along the ground, — with their 
equipment for setting up a loud-speaking 
telephone. First the heavy artillery-fire pre- 
pares the way and sweeps the front trenches 
of the enemy. Heavy smoke-bombs are then 
thrown to conceal the advance, and at a sig- 
nal the men go ''over the top." 

The signal-men follow closely. They 
carry reels of wire, which they run out as 
they struggle forward. If a linesman falls, 
another takes his place. There is no time, as 
a rule, to arrange supports for the wire, and 
in the barren wastes of no-man's-land no 
tree nor stick remains to which to attach 
them. The wires are run rapidly from 
point to point, until the field is covered with 
a network of communicating lines. A 
chance shell from the enemy may destroy 
these wires at any moment, when the work 
must be repeated. 

Such work is often complicated by lack of 
supplies. In a hurried advance the electri- 
173 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

cal equipment may be lost, and the signal- 
men must then work with whatever make- 
shift material they find at hand. An engi- 
neer, finding himself one day on a battle-field 
hopelessly far from his base of supply, im- 
provised a working-station entirely of waste 
material. A switchboard, capable of serv- 
ing five stations, was contrived entirely from 
material picked up on the battle-field. The 
metal was supplied by an eighteen-pound 
cartridge-case. This was fastened to boards 
with screws taken from ammunition-boxes. 
The plugs consisted of .303 rifle cartridge- 
cases, and fuses and pieces of picked-up wire 
completed the installation. 

As the infantry advance, it is of vital im- 
portance that the heavy batteries far in the 
rear be informed of their progress and their 
exact position. The signal-men rush for- 
ward, the wires are connected with the in- 
struments they carry, and news of their prog- 
ress is sent to the batteries at the rear. Ar- 
tillery fire can thus be directed from a posi- 
tion perhaps miles at the rear ; otherwise the 
shells might fall alike on friend and foe. 

Few of the fighting engineers face greater 
.174 



AMERICAN VERSATILITY 

danger than do the men recruited for the 
Gas and Flame Regiment. As the name 
suggests, these engineers direct the work of 
producing liquid fire, which is employed be- 
fore an attack. These men must be expe- 
rienced chemists, and the preparation of in- 
flammable solutions is left to them. Streams 
of burning oil are often shot forward a dis- 
tance of 150 feet. 

The Gas and Flame Unit is officially 
known as the Thirtieth Engineers. In en- 
listing this regiment, men between the ages 
of eighteen and forty-five have been taken. 
Every member was obliged to have some 
technical experience which fitted him for the 
work. The regiment, therefore, includes 
chemists, mechanical engineers, explosive 
gas-workers, electricians, gas-experts, me- 
chanics, pipe-fitters, and special interpreters. 
The regiment was quickly mobilized as early 
as October 15, 191 7, and was sent to Camp 
American University under command of 
Major E. J. Atkinson. A number of Eng- 
lish officers who were experienced in the 
work; were sent over to train them. 

One of the engineering regiments includes 
177 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

a company of twenty "skyographs," a serv- 
ice new in warfare. These men, who are ex- 
perts in their profession, are employed to 
analyze the bird's-eye photographs taken by 
aeroplane scouts. From long training, they 
are skilful in constructing the military maps 
used in planning campaigns and directing 
military operations. The aero-photograph- 
ers fly regularly over the lines, and take 
thousands of photographs from various ele- 
vations with the aid of special aero-cameras. 
Such photographs are then compared with 
the maps of the region, and the information 
available and everything of military impor- 
tance is indicated upon them. A few hours 
after the pictures are made, a general, per- 
haps miles behind the lines, by the aid of such 
map-photographs may be said to look directly 
down upon the enemy. 

The varied experience of American 
bridge-builders has proved a valuable asset. 
The regiment recruited in the United States 
for this work is officered by a number of en- 
gineers selected from railroad companies, the 
Army, and official bodies, while the rank and 
file is made up of men trained by years of ex- 
178 



AMERICAN VERSATILITY 

perience in actual construction work. With 
such a force, every problem abroad may be 
attacked with confidence. Widely scat- 
tered over Northern France, American en- 
gineers are to-day actively engaged in build- 
ing a variety of bridges, great and small. 

Compared with European standards, 
American engineering work sets a fast pace. 
In the present operations every effort has 
been made to improve upon our own best 
records, often with amazing success. Un- 
loading of ships in France has been speeded 
up, so that the work is being done to-day in 
less than one third the time usually required. 
The first order in America for standard-gage 
locomotives of the ninety-ton type, calling for 
three hundred units, was placed on July 19, 
and delivery was required in October. The 
first locomotive was delivered, complete, on 
August I. This was followed by a second 
order for 680 locomotives of the same type. 

In some respects the most notable construc- 
tive work of the American engineers is the 
great ordnance base "somewhere in France." 
It is r'eally an industrial city in which every 
unit is carefully organized for constructive 
179 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

work. The cost of building this plant is esti- 
mated at $25,ooo,0(X>, while the tool equip- 
ment cost is an additional $5,000,000. The 
plant includes twenty large storehouses, 
twelve shop-buildings, and one hundred 
smaller shops and magazines. 

One of its important features is a great 
gun repair-plant, equipped to handle more 
than 800 field-guns of all sizes each month. 
In connection with this is a gun-carriage 
repair-shop of large capacity, where 1200 
vehicles may be repaired monthly. The 
small-arms repair-shop has a capacity of 50,- 
000 small-arms and machine-guns a month. 
Furthermore, there will be a large shop for 
repairing horse and infantry equipment. 
The reloading plant is capable of renewing 
100,000 artillery cartridge-cases a day. In 
connection with this tremendous activity 
there are innumerable forges, carpenter- 
shops, and auxiliary buildings. A popula- 
tion of 16,000 men and 450 officers is re- 
quired to carry on this base. More than 
8000 men have already enlisted in America 
for the work, and the training of these highly 
technical troops is progressing rapidly. 
180 



AMERICAN VERSATILITY 

The Allied governments have been amazed 
at America's facilities for turning out steel 
and iron constructive material. In build- 
ing thousands of steel structures throughout 
the country the number of constructive 
plants has been greatly increased in recent 
years, and the time required to fill orders has 
been cut far below European standards. 
The facilities of such plants were well illus- 
trated in the filling of a recent order for one 
hundred steel warehouses. The buildings 
were to measure 50 by 400 feet, with a height 
of 16 feet below the trusses, the sides and 
the roofs to be made entirely of galvanized 
steel. Each building required 175 tons of 
steel. The order was received at the depot 
on a Thursday afternoon at four o'clock. 
By the following Saturday at four, — within 
forty-eight hours, — the entire job had been 
designed in detail, and orders for the parts 
had been placed with seven different fabri- 
cating shops. Seventy-five of the buildings 
were delivered, complete, in six weeks, and 
the remainder followed shortly. An order 
was 'recently filled for 750,000 sheets of cor- 
rugated iron, to be shipped at once. 
181 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

On retreating from any occupied territory 
the Germans and Austrians often content 
themselves with destroying the central sup- 
port of a bridge, leaving the spans to fall to 
the bottom of the river or ravine, as the case 
may be. Such a bridge is restored in a sur- 
prisingly short time by rebuilding the central 
pier and raising the spans to their original 
position. The bridge-building engineers 
employ a make-shift pile-driver, which works 
with surprising rapidity. Power-plants are 
usually hard to find, but man-power is likely 
to be plentiful. A heavy weight is quickly 
rigged with pulleys, and a hundred or more 
men, pulling on the rope, raise the weight, 
then let it drop, forcing the pile into the earth 
with slow but steady blows. 

Every detail of the work that can be pre- 
pared is, of course, done in advance. Not 
only are the plans made in detail for bridging 
a variety of openings, but bridges of vari- 
ous designs are built and then knocked down, 
ready to be carried away and put together 
again. For small spans, a steel bridge is 
sometimes used. This can be set up in dif- 
182 



AMERICAN VERSATILITY 

ferent lengths. The parts are cut and 
drilled, so that when put in place they will fit 
as neatly as a puzzle. No riveting is re- 
quired, the parts being fastened together 
with bolts that may be driven with an ordi- 
nary hammer. Such bridges may be set up 
very quickly. 

The • engineering regiments are liberally 
supplied with expert photographers equipped 
with up-to-date apparatus. The skill and 
daring of the camera-man is proving invalu- 
able in a variety of war activities. In many 
cases the photographers form an advance- 
guard, and may be compared to the sharp- 
shooters or pickets who fight in advance of 
the main body. It often happens, for exam- 
ple, that the advance-guard will reach a 
bridge, or the site of a bridge, made unten- 
able by the enemy's fire. It may be impera- 
tive that the bridge-builders at once survey 
the location and make their plans for build- 
ing a new structure with the least possible 
delay. A deadly fire, meanwhile, may ren- 
der the position practically impossible. For 
the engineers to expose themselves, while 
183 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

they examined the injured structure and 
made the necessary measurements, would 
mean almost certain death. 

The alert camera-man, however, readily 
solves the problem. By slowly crawling for- 
ward, taking advantage of every tree and 
rock, or it may be by a rapid dash, he secures 
snap-shots of the bridge from one point of 
view after another, with the details of the 
approach. Such a set of photographs are 
well worth the risk. The exposed films are 
then rushed to the rear, to be developed and 
enlarged with the least possible delay. The 
prints serve as rough working-drawings 
from which the engineers, in this case the 
experienced bridge-builders, may calculate 
the size of the parts required to restore the 
bridge or to construct a new structure. The 
parts are quickly prepared and hurried for- 
ward, where a corps of engineers assemble 
them, and the chasm is bridged or the old 
structure is sufficiently repaired to enable the 
troops to advance. The fearlessness of the 
camera-men has thus saved many valuable 
days. 

The camera serves the road-builders in 
184 



Xlttf- 




AMERICAN VERSATILITY 

much the same way. If a railroad is to be 
laid, the photographers accompany the sur- 
veyors in advance of the workmen, and inci- 
dentally often face a very lively peril while 
working in disputed territory. The photo- 
graphs thus obtained show the engineers the 
nature of the ground to be traversed and as- 
sist them in preparing material in advance. 
The builders of highways have also learned 
to depend upon the camera-man. A section 
of road that is to be repaired, for instance, 
is photographed in detail from various an- 
gles. From this evidence the road-construc- 
tion engineers can readily determine the na- 
ture of material needed for repairs and can 
calculate the quantity required. When a 
road is projected across new territory the 
staff-photographers are first sent out to 
make detailed pictures of the ground. 
From these the engineers at the bases far in 
the rear may make their plans in detail. So 
much depends upon the highways in this war 
that the work of the camera-men in facilitat- 
ing such construction often proves invalua- 
ble. When any territory is to be evacuated, 
once more the photographers picture every 
187 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

detail of the ground, the buildings, bridges, 
possible observation-posts, streams, and 
other natural features. If the country falls 
into the hands of the enemy, they thus retain 
an accurate, detailed record that will prove 
valuable to the artillery and to the aeroplane 
scouts in subsequent operations. 

In no other country is the camera so com- 
mon as in America. In some form it is in 
the hands of all classes, even to the further- 
most corners of the land. Years of practice 
have served to develop a surprisingly high 
degree of skill in picture-taking. The Gov- 
ernment therefore draws upon an inex- 
haustible supply in recruiting men for pho- 
tographic work. 

The fighting engineers so often find them- 
selves under fire that elaborate concrete shel- 
ters, or abris, are built at frequent intervals. 
These shelters are built of brick or concrete, 
with solid, concrete roofs two feet or more in 
thickness. They are practically shell-proof. 
The entrances are convenient to the roads, 
so that workmen may quickly find shelter. 
From long experience the engineers have 
come to think scarcely more of such fire than 
i88 



AMERICAN VERSATILITY 

they do of a passing thunder-storm; and as 
soon as it shows signs of letting up, they 
hurry back to their work. 

The rapidity with which a towering sky- 
scraper r'ses in the United States, or a 
"boom" town is built on a Western prairie, 
has been surpassed by the erection of the 
great 'cantonments throughout the United 
States. A more severe test of our resource- 
fulness than the building of these vast 
wooden cities could not be conceived. The 
order came as a complete surprise. No ma- 
terial was at hand, an army of skilled work- 
men had to be recruited overnight for the 
task, and every hour had to count in the 
work. 

The task might have daunted Aladdin 
himself. Sixteen wooden cities had to be 
built, comprising 26,500 buildings, for the 
housing and care of 675,000 men; two em- 
barkation camps for 43,000 men; one quar- 
termaster's training camp for 18,000 men; 
additions to the regular army barracks for 
100,000 men; repair shops, units and their 
structures at sixteen National Guard camps 
to care for 462,000 men; and many large 
189 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

plants for our army in France. A force of 
200,000 trained, skilled mechanics had to be 
recruited for this work. The cost of the 
operations, — about $187,000,000, — is more 
than three times the annual outlay in build- 
ing the Panama Canal. 

The work progressed with military pre- 
cision at an unheard-of rate. The sites of 
the sixteen National Army cantonments 
were not approved until dates ranging from 
May 31, to June 2y, 191 7, but the contracts 
were issued, nevertheless, between June 15 
and June 23, and work was commenced be- 
tween June 13 and July 6. In less than three 
months, or on September 4, half a million 
men could have been accommodated at the 
cantonments. By December the camps were 
practically completed. 

The total area of the cantonments is 261 
square miles. In these camps alone over 
800,000,000 feet of lumber were used, or 
enough to fill 37,000 cars, and 40,000 more 
cars were required to bring the other ma- 
terials, making a total of 77,000 cars. Some 
idea of the magnitude of the task may be 
gained from the fact that 172,000 doors were 
190 



AMERICAN VERSATILITY 

used, 34,000,000 square feet of wall-board, 
106,000 kegs of nails, 314,000 barrels of ce- 
ment, 282 miles of pipe, 23,550 hydrants, 
and 75 miles of fire-hose. The building of 
these great wooden cities has been a unique 
achievement, one that will go down in history 
as a monument to the loyalty and ability of 
American engineers. 

Preparations on this side of the Atlantic 
for expediting the delivery of war supplies 
are most impressive. A vast system of in- 
terior depots and port-terminals has been de- 
signed, which doubtless establishes a new 
standard of efficiency. Under the direction 
of the cantonment division of the quarter- 
master-general's office, a large force of de- 
signers perfected plans on an enormous scale. 
The type of construction was selected with 
an idea of early completion, although most of 
the buildings will be permanent and will be 
used by our Government after the war. 

A series of interior depots of great ca- 
pacity were first designed at points readily 
accessible by railroad to the large manufac- 
turing centers. In connection with these, a 
number of port-terminals have been located 
191 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

at tidewater, where ocean-going vessels 
might dock, or, at least, be within lighterage 
distance. The products of the factories are 
first assembled in the interior depots by rail- 
road or motor-truck. These depots thus 
come to form great reservoirs for feeding 
the terminal warehouses. An enormous vol- 
ume of supplies can thus be moved from the 
interior of the United States to the coast, 
and finally to France, with the least possible 
delay. 

Interior depots have been built at St. 
Louis, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and elsewhere 
convenient to the great manufacturing cen- 
ters. The type of buildings varies with dif- 
ferent localities, some being constructed of 
reinforced concrete, while others are entirely 
of steel. The first of the great port-termi- 
nals was erected at Philadelphia. One of 
these terminals occupies a tract of land 3800 
feet in length, along a ship-canal that has a 
depth of 25 feet and a length of 1600 feet. 
Special tracks have been laid, connecting the 
terminal with a main-line railroad half a 
mile away. Along the sides of the canal two 
open sheds have been constructed, measuring 
192 



AMERICAN VERSATILITY 

1 1 00 by 1 60 feet, nine large storehouses, an 
open shed 1200 by 500 feet, together with 
quarters for the stevedore troops. A series 
of warehouses have also been built 160 feet 
in width, in multiples of 140 feet in length. 
Another of the great port-terminals has a 
pier extending 1 500 feet, and utilizes 400,000 
square feet of shed-storage. 

In organizing our resources, an important 
use has been found for the skill of the 
moving-picture men. It is well known, of 
course, that a large proportion of the mov- 
ing-pictures used the world over are made in 
America. A large force of men has thus 
been trained in the new art, and, as might be 
expected, this group has reached a high state 
of efficiency. The Government has added to 
its engineering regiments hundreds of men 
recruited from ''movie" studios to assist in 
preparing camouflage material. Every fre- 
quenter of moving-picture theaters knows 
that these artists perform wonders in build- 
ing villages or the semblance of cities over 
night. In a few hours they can produce 
scenes from any country or century so con- 
vincing in every detail that the most critical 

193 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

moving-picture audience is readily deceived. 
It has been a happy idea to utilize this skill 
in safeguarding our armies abroad. The 
ingenuity displayed and the amazing facility 
of these war artists in their work may well 
be a source of pride to Americans. Work- 
ing with lath and canvas or papier-mache, 
the magic of the movies has been adapted to 
many surprising uses. After long expe- 
rience in building scenes that deceive mil- 
lions of "movie fans," it is an easy task for 
them to produce the same illusion for Ger- 
man military audiences. One of the most 
successful ''sets" is a reproduction of de- 
vastated buildings in the war zone. It 
often happens that a fragment of a house 
or a church, perhaps only the corner of a 
wall, is left standing in no-man's land. The 
camouflage artists quickly reproduce the 
piece in life size with light wood or papier- 
mache, and then paint it to duplicate the 
original. On some dark night, perhaps un- 
der cover of artillery fire, the original ruin 
is removed and the duplicate set up in its 
place. A day or two is allowed for the 
enemy to detect the deception. If the for- 
194 



AMERICAN VERSATILITY 

gery passes muster, it is cautiously moved 
forward a few feet every night. It is often 
found possible to advance the piece of scen- 
ery a considerable distance nearer the en- 
emy's lines without arousing suspicion. 
Meanwhile, an alert scout from a look-out at 
the top of the fake ruin spies upon the enemy 
and by means of telephone communication 
keeps his base supplied with information. 
A similar deception is often worked by keep- 
ing the ruin stationary, but to increase its 
height a few inches at a time until the in- 
genious observation-post reaches the desired 
elevation. Thus it becomes a matter of life 
and death as to how skilfully the scene- 
painter can practice his art. 

A piece of landscape having a thousand 
details to deceive the eye is sometimes repro- 
duced with perfect success. At one point on 
the long battle-line a road chanced to cross 
both trenches at right angles, so that the 
enemy could look for some distance up this 
thoroughfare. An elaborate piece of stag- 
ing was prepared to reproduce this scene, 
and this was set up one night across the 
road. Viewed from a short distance, the 
195 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

enemy imagined that he still looked up the 
empty road. The painted scenery mean- 
while concealed the actual road, which was 
quickly utilized by trains of automobiles 
bringing supplies and ammunition. This 
surprising activity went on for several 
weeks, until a chance shot destroyed the 
scenery across the road and revealed a very 
different picture to the amazed Germans. 

Every object found on the battle-field is 
reproduced by these skilful stage-artists to 
serve some purpose. When the ground is 
apparently absolutely barren, some means 
will still be found to deceive the enemy. A 
stone, a log, or some piece of debris will be 
selected and carefully reproduced. Under 
cover of darkness the stone, or whatever it 
may be, is removed and the imitation put in 
its place. A day or two is given the enemy 
to discover the forgery. If he does not, a 
hole will then be hollowed out beneath the 
stone large enough to conceal a man, and 
here he may sit with his head covered by the 
piece of stage scenery. He must take up 
this perilous position at night, and remain 
there until the following night, but if he sur- 
196 



AMERICAN VERSATILITY 

vives, he may be able to telephone back some 
highly valuable information. One of the 
favorite "properties" of this kind is a repro- 
duction of a dead horse, with distended body 
and stiff legs pointed upward. The ob- 
server thus protected has an unusual amount 
of room in which to turn about and to op- 
erate his telephone. 

Years are required for an industrial, 
peace-loving people to recruit and train a 
great army. Brought face to face with the 
forces of a distinctively military people, the 
United States is, of course, for the moment 
at a great disadvantage. Her great army 
of engineers, with its innumerable conquests 
in every field behind it, has, however, been 
mobilized in force at a moment's notice. 

The American engineer is in no sense a 
superman. He has brought average skill to 
his work with perhaps a liberal share of 
American energy and alertness. His ver- 
satility is due to the simple fact that he has 
been trained in the greatest school of expe- 
rience in the world. He has encountered 
every conceivable engineering problem in 
the United States, and with these achieve- 
197 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

ments behind him, he is well prepared for 
any new undertaking. A New York fire- 
man, for instance, enjoys a reputation for 
skill, not because he is more alert or more 
intelligent than the firemen in small com- 
munities, but because he fights half-a-dozen 
fires of all kinds every day. 

In the early days of the war, when Atlan- 
tic steamers were crowded to capacity with 
home-coming Americans, a number of en- 
gineers were already bound in the opposite 
direction. Mr. William J. Hillgas, the well- 
known engineer, was one of the first five to 
reach the front, and he has since been ac- 
tively employed in France. One of the first 
American engineers to join our forces was 
Mr. (now Major) William Barclay Parsons, 
who, it will be remembered, was the chief 
engineer of the Rapid Transit Commission 
who directed the building of New York's 
first subway. The foreign stafif to-day in- 
cludes Mr. W. S. Buck, who built the Man- 
hattan Bridge across the East River and one 
of the great Niagara bridges. The engi- 
neer who built the East River Tunnel is also 
198 



AMERICAN VERSATILITY 

in France. The list might be continued in- 
definitely. 

A force of American sanitary engi- 
neers has been entrusted with the work of 
cleaning up Palestine. Since the days of the 
Roman occupation at least, the sanitary situ- 
ation throughout the Holy Lands has been a 
constant menace. Jerusalem with a popu- 
lation of 100,000 has had no water supply 
and no sewage system. Throughout Pales- 
tine the better classes have been obliged to 
import their drinking water from Austria. 
The system of drainage has remained ex- 
tremely primitive. It is necessary to edu- 
cate the public in the most fundamental prin- 
ciples of sanitation. 

A new era will be opened for the Holy 
Lands with the adoption of modern Amer- 
ican methods. Our engineers have taken 
with them, for instance, a complete filter sys- 
tem with a special chlorinator apparatus 
which will make it possible to supply thou- 
sands of the population of the region, with 
pure water. It is planned to supply at least 
two gallons a day for every person. For the 
199 



THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 

first time in recorded history the Holy Lands 
will be made a decent place to live in. 

The American forces will be directed by 
several of the best known sanitary engineers 
of the country, including Captain Groemiger, 
President of the American Society of Sani- 
tary Engineers, Captain Pease of the Wor- 
cester Polytechnic Institute, Captain Carson, 
Chairman of the Research Committee of the 
American Society of Sanitary Engineers and 
others. The work of the American engi- 
neers will include the scientific drainage of 
great areas of swamp regions to insure per- 
manent relief from the menace of disease. 
It has remained for American ingenuity and 
energy to utilize the pools of Solomon to 
purify its historic waters by modern meth- 
ods, and make it available for the capital of 
Judea. In lending the genius of its engi- 
neers, America is making a contribution 
worthy of our country's best traditions. 



200 



"LADIES 
FROM HELL" 

By R. D. PINKERTON 

This is war — its thrills, its nobilities, its splendors. A poet at heart, 
and face to face with the flaming realities, this young Scotchman wrote 
the first draught of his book, and in it is the very breath of the battlefield. 

Mr. Pinkerton was a member of the famous London Scottish Regi- 
ment, which went into the fighting at the very beginning. "Ladies from 
Hell" the Germans called the Scotchmen in kilts as they came tearing 
through their lines, fighting with an effect associated with a place whose 
climate is said to be different from that of Scotland; and the name has 
lived. 

The reader will re-live, with the author, in minutest detail, his months 
of training and fighting; the reader will be made a comrade in arms with 
the captivating "Ladies -from Hell." From the book Americans may see, 
with a clearness to be gained from few other books on the war, just what 
our soldiers meet when they fight the men in the dirt-colored uniforms. 

There are in this book of a fighting Scot with a poet's heart flashes 
that tremble in vividness against the tremendous black background. And 
at the end the reader will know more of what war is — its sacrifice and 
its magnificence — than he ever knew before, unless he already has been at 
the middle of the greatest event of modern times. 

Illustrated from photographs 
Price $1,50 



At All Bookstores TUr PI7NTITPY C(\ 353 Fourth Avenue 
Published by inC V/EilllUIVl \AJ. New York City 



FLASHES FROM 
THE FRONT 

By Charles H. Grasty 

With a Foreword by General John J. Pershing 

"The history of this war cannot be written without the perspective 
which time alone can give," says General John J. Pershing in his foreword. 
"In the meanwhile such chronicles as the author (Mr. Grasty) has pre- 
sented supply the pubhc with current information and preserve a useful 
record for the historian. The exceptional opportunities of observation 
enjoyed by the author will make this volume one of the best among 
contemporary publications on the war." 

Mr. Grasty is a war correspondent of the New York Times traveling 
with orders to go wherever there are big things to see, study and write 
about. "The exceptional opportunities of observation" spoken of by 
General Pershing are founded on the international prestige of his paper, 
the machinery for facilitating the seeing and reporting put at his disposal 
by its regular correspondents in Europe wherever he went, and Mr. 
Grasty's own special equipment for seeing and studying the great figures 
and events of the war. 

"Flashes From the Front" is made up of his maturest opinions on 
men and things of the war, and they are presented with an accuracy, charm 
and fullness not possible for the usual newspaper correspondence. The 
book is a series of brilliant sidelights on the war, illuminating now an 
outstanding figure among the Allies, now a section of trench-Hfe, now a 
matter of diplomacy or international politics, etc. 

"Flashes From the Front" is the cream of the material gathered in 
Europe by one of the greatest war correspondents from this side of the 
Atlantic, 

Octavo, 350 pages 

Illustrated with photographs, and with drawings 

by Muirhead Bone, one of the official 

artists for the British Government 

Price $2.00 

At All Bookstores TOr PFlilTITPV CC\ 353 Fourth Avenue 
Published by inEi l^£illIUI\I \AJ. New York City 



THE ROOTS 
OF THE WAR 

By William Stearns Davis 

In Collaboration with William Anderson and Mason W. Tyler 

This book undertakes to outline the circumstances that made possible 
Germany's inconceivably daring attempt to achieve at one, or, at most, 
two or three ruthless and gigantic strokes of the sword, the establishment 
of a world empire, an Empire of Teutonia, indescribably vaster, richer, 
more universal than that of imperial Rome. 

President Wilson, himself a historian, has said: "You can explain 
most wars very simply, but the explanation of this war is not so simple. 
Its roots run deep into all the obscure soils of history." 

It is to discover some of these roots and their fateful growths that 
this book was written. It covers especially the period from 1870 to 1914, 
with background references of course to preceding European history. 

The authors say in their preface : "By general consent the period of 
history which ended in 1914 saw its beginning in 1870 when the Prussian 
militarists won their original triumph over France, thereby establishing 
a precedent for the use of armed force as a wise supplement to flagging 
diplomacy, a precedent that was to be applied with incalculable effect upon 
a much greater field of action forty-four years later. During this interval 
a great many national and international forces were acting simultaneously 
which all together helped to produce the climax of Armageddon." 

12mo, 400 pages, 6 maps 
Price $1.50 

At All Bookstores TUC PFIVITITRY C(\ 353 Fourth Avenue 
Published by * n*-" Vl-ill 1 UI\ I \AJ, New York City 



THE AIR MAN 

His Conquests in Peace and War 

By Francis A. Collins 

Author of " The Camera Man," Etc 

In these stirring times when newspapers almost daily carry some 
thrilling account of a battle amid the clouds, a book like "The Air Man," 
by Francis A. Collins, cannot fail to interest a host of readers. Here, in 
succinct, vivid style that is not too technical for the lay mind yet never 
departs from a clear exposition of its subject, the author paints a picture 
of the immense strides — or shall one say flights — that aviation has made 
since the Wright brothers introduced it to the world. 

There are chapters on training the tyro and the qualifications, physical 
as well as mental, necessary to become an expert; the art of navigation 
and the recently devised mechanical arts that render it a practical cer- 
tainty; types of aeroplanes, their cost and up-keep, together with records 
of flights in this country and abroad ; methods of use, such as for hunting, 
exploring, business, pleasure or war, giving graphic illustrations in each 
case; the progress of aviation in the Great War, with its remarkable but 
inspiring code, the "Chivalry of the Air"; and, last but not least, the 
gratifying record of American achievement in aerial scouting work during 
the Mexican campaign. 

All in all, this is a book that holds the attention, and makes the heart 
beat faster ; it will have a tremendous appeal for aroused America — ^young 
and old. 

12mOf 300 pages. 

Fully illustrated from, photographs 

Price $1,30 net 

At AH Bookstores TLIl? rFNITITDY C(\ 353 Fourth Avenue 
Published by inEi V/DlliUlVl \AJ* New York City 



THE 
CAMERAMAN 

His Adventures in Many Fields: With Practical 
Suggestions for the Amateur 

By Francis A. Collins ^ 

Author of "The Wireless Man," etc 

A fact-story that reads like romance, telling what men can do, what 
men are doing every day, with the black box with the unprejudiced eye. 
A book full of entertainment and information for the general reader 
interested in adventure and popular science and of very special value for 
the amateur photographer, to whom it offers many ideas for the enriching 
of his experiences with the camera. 

Most people do not realize what a large and important work the 
camera does to-day, into how many and what various spheres of activity 
it has been called. Mr. Collins knows his subject intimately, and he presents 
it with simplicity, completeness, and charm as well as with scrupulous 
accuracy. 

The following, which are some of the chapter-headings, indicate the 
scope and nature of the book: Aeroplane Photography; The Camera 
Man at Sea; The "Movie" Reporter; The News Photographer; The 
"Movies" in Warfare; The Commercial Photographer; History of the 
Camera; Color Photography; Photography in Science; Many Kinds of 
Cameras. 

12niOf 325 pages, jacket in color 

32 full-page illustrations 

Price $1.30 net 

At All Bookstores TUC rfNTITPY CC\ 353 Fourth Avenue 
Published by * nC VEiIl I UIV I VV/. New York City 



DONALD THOMPSON 
IN RUSSIA 

By Donald Thompson 

This book constitutes an amazing, contemporary, eye-witness record 
of Russia in revolution by an American who had to be in the midst of 
the cataclysm and who was interested only in seeing the facts. 

Donald Thompson went to Russia to photograph the revolution. 
"Shoot the revolution" is the phrase, for he made thousands of feet of 
moving-picture films. You cannot imagine pictures, or get them from 
some person who heard from a friend that so-and-so had happened; you 
have to be on the spot in the midst of things to get photos and "footage." 

Donald Thompson was in the midst of the Russian revolution. He 
went everywhere, favored by luck, supported by a camera experience on 
every front in Europe that is without parallel. E. Alexander Powell, the 
famous newspaper correspondent, says in his book, "Fighting in Flanders" : 
"Of all the band of adventurous characters who were drawn to the Con- 
tinent in the outbreak of war as iron filings are attracted by a magnet, J. 
doubt if there was a more picturesque character than a little photographer 
from Kansas named Donald Thompson. . . . He not only saw war, all 
military prohibitions to the contrary, but he actually photographed it." 

When Mr. Thompson started for Russia, to fall into the biggest story 
he had ever dreamed of, he began writing newsy, vivid letters to his wife. 
As he penetrated more deeply into the thrilling events in Russia, he found 
himself telling the story of the Russian revolution, in detail, as he saw it, 
as it happened. 

8vo, 300 pages, 64 illustrations from pnotographs 
Price $2.00 

At All Bookstores TUr PCMTfTPV Cfi 353 Fourth Avenue 
Published by * "*-• V/Eill I UIV 1 \AJ* New York City 




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